KEENE, N.H. 12/4/2003 - Alphonse Michalski (Northampton, Mass.) led a balanced Owl offense with 15 points to lead the Keene State College men's basketball team to a 83-57 non-conference victory over Southern Vermont College at Spaulding Gym on Thursday night.

With the victory, KSC improves to 4-1 while SVC falls to 1-3.

Leading by as many as 10 points (19-9), the Owls had to settle for a six-point (31-25) lead at the break. KSC missed all 11 of its three point attempts in the half.

KSC gradually pulled away from the Mountaineers in the second half.  After making a steal Michalski fed Matt Wheeler (Shrub Oak, N.Y.) who went in for a dunk that pushed the lead to 13 points at the 15:15 mark.

Southern Vermont closed the gap to eight points (53-45) on a three-pointer by Sean Ezell with 10-20 to play, but it was all KSC from there.  Following a double technical on Cortney Denson, Bennett Pawlusiak (Manchester, N.H.) and Harley Davis (Newburyport, Mass.) hit four-of-six free throws to extend the advantage to 19 points.

In addition to Michalski, who also finished with seven assists, the Owls had three other players hit double figures.  Chris Timson (Beverly, Mass.) had 13 points, Wheeler had 11 points, and Sean Sullivan (Athol, Mass.) finished with 10 points.  Wheeler had a team-high seven rebounds for the Owls, who had a 49-29 advantage on the boards. 

Ezell led the Mountaineers with 15 points while Mike Shure and Sean Key had 12 points each.

Keene State begins LEC play on Saturday with a game at UMass-Dartmouth (3 p.m.).