SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 1/8/2004 - Senior forward Chris Timson (Beverly, Mass.) tied his season-high with 26 points and 12 rebounds and Matt Wheeler (Shrub Oak, N.Y.) finished with 18 points to lead the Keene State College men's basketball team to a 80-69 non-conference road victory over Springfield College on Thursday.

With the win Keene State improves to 8-2 while Springfield College falls to 4-6.

The Owls took a nine-point lead (36-27) on a three-pointer by Alphonse Michalski (Northampton, Mass.) before settling for a 40-33 advantage at the break.

KSC pulled away from the Pride in the second half.  A lay-up by Timson gave the Owls their biggest lead (74-55) with 6:16 to play.

After struggling with his shot at the Williams College Tournament over the weekend, Michalski bounced back to score 15 points to go with seven assists.  Sean Sullivan (Athol, Mass.) added 12 points. 

"Springfield is a scrappy team that relies on its perimeter game, and once we found their shooters, we were able to slow them down, "said KSC Coach Rob Colbert.  "Their smaller up front, and Timson and Wheeler were able to take advantage of the mismatches. Timson hit some dagger threes and Wheeler got several hoops off the boards."

"It was a good non-conference win heading into our LEC schedule," he added.

Joel Aponte topped Springfield with 19 points.

Keene State hosts Southern Maine in a 3 p.m. LEC contest at Spaulding Gym on Saturday.