Hanover, N.H. 12/9/04 - The Keene State College men's basketball team came up short against Division I Dartmouth College on Thursday night, dropping a 72-56 game to the Big Green at Leede Arena.

Freshman Carl Slate (North Attleboro, Mass.) came off the bench to score a season high 14 points to lead the Owls. Sean Sullivan (Athol, Mass.) finished with 11 points and seven rebounds while Ben Maynard (Nobleboro, Me.) added a team best eight rebounds.

The Owls stayed with Dartmouth in the early going. A three-pointer by David Sontag (Mont Vernon, N.H.) got KSC with two points at the 10:50 mark. But the Big Green went on a 13-4 spurt late in the half to go up 30-19 before taking a 45-30 lead to the locker room.

In the second half, KSC used a brief run to cut the lead down to 11 (59-48) on a layup by Harley Davis with 7:58 to play, but a pair of turnovers in their next couple of possessions curtailed the Owls' cutback hopes.

"I thought it was a tale of two different halves," said KSC Coach Rob Colbert. "We came out tentative in the first half which was unusual for this team. We made some adjustments in the second half, but give Dartmouth credit, they responded well to our pressure defense."

"I'm proud of the team the way they battled back. Now we have to put this game behind us and get ready for a Little East game against UMass-Boston."

Mike Giovacchini had a game-high 19 points and Chuck Flynn finished with 15 points and eight rebounds to help Dartmouth (2-3) end their three game skid.

Keene State (5-2) returns to LEC play at UMass-Boston on Saturday (3 p.m.).