KEENE, N.H. 2/22/02 - The top seeded Keene State College men's basketball team survived a scare from fourth seed Plymouth State to post a late come-from-behind 67-62 win over the Panthers in a semifinal Little East Conference Tournament game played Friday at Spaulding Gym.

Keene State (22-3) advances to the LEC Championship game against Western Connecticut at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Second seed WCSU punched its ticket to the title game with a 84-64 victory over third seed UMA-Dartmouth in the other semifinal contest behind Kevin Matthews who had a game-high 25 points. It will be the Owls third appearance in the Championship and second in the past two years.

The Owls didn't take the lead for good until 18 seconds left to play on two free throws by Dave Stantial. Plymouth State led by as many as nine points in the second half. With 1:32 left, Stantial hit a turnaround jumper to get KSC within three points (62-59). After Jason Blackburn missed at the other end, the Owls swung the ball to Derek Swenson, who drained a trey to tie the game at 62-62 with 57 seconds remaining.

Plymouth State (16-10) would not get another basket the rest of the game. Blackburn turned the ball over , and after Stantial hit a couple of free throws to give the Owls a 64-62 lead, PSC's Nick Pilotte missed a chance to tie the game when he missed the front end of a one-and-one with 2.1 seconds left on the clock.

"Everyone was frustrated at some point," said Stantial. "No one was hitting any shots and we had to find a way through that."

Stantial led KSC with 21 points while Swenson added 19 points, including seven-for-seven from the free throw line in the second half. Blackburn led Plymouth State in scoring with 17 points and also had nine rebounds.

Keene State and WCSU (19-6) split their two games during the season with each team winning on its home court. KSC prevailed 87-78 in Keene while the Colonials edged the Owls 90-83 in Danbury, CT.  Western CT brings a eight-game winning streak into the championship.

Keene State receiving votes in most recent d3hoops.com Top 25 poll (Feb. 17).