'KEENE, N.H. 11/22/05 - Sophomore guard David Sontag (Mont Vernon, N.H.) tied his career-high with 30 points to lead the Keene State College men's basketball team to a 83-72 non-conference victory over Endicott College at Spaulding Gym on Tuesday night.

Keene State improves to 3-0 while Endicott, which had beaten the Owls in their past two meetings, falls to 1-2.

Sontag, who hit 10 of his 14 shots from the field and five of six from behind the arc in the game, scored 18 of his points in the first half.

"I felt we were a little stagnant offensively, and the opportunities opened up for me." Sontag said.

"It was almost like we had eaten the Thanksgiving turkey before the game," said KSC Coach Rob Colbert.  "We were sluggish.  But I'm proud of the way we gutted it out and found a way to win against a very good team."

Endicott came in to the game after giving Amherst College, the number five team in the country, all they could handle in a 68-57 loss on Saturday.

Leading 38-36 at the half, KSC pulled away from the Gulls midway in the second half.  The Owls stretched a four point lead (56-51) to 15 points (70-65) on a barrage of three-pointers by Sontag and Carl Slate (North Attleboro, Mass.) who came off the bench to bury three treys during the uprising.

"I thought Carl hit some big threes for us and Adam Gervais (Chelsea, Me.) gave us some quality minutes under the boards with his rebounding," Colbert said. 

"It's a different guy every night," said Sontag.  "Everyone seems to be buying into the system and accepting their roles."

Sontag had a team-high eight rebounds and three assists to go with his 30 points.  Freshman forward Tyler Kathan (Ludlow, Vt.) had his first double-digit game for the Owls with 11 points.  KSC hit 12 of its 22 three-point attempts (55%) in the game.

Nemanja Marinkovic (Belgrade, Serbia) and Zach Ellis (Westford, Mass.) had 18 points each and Matt George (Dover, N.H.) finished with 17 points to lead the Gulls.

Following the Thanksgiving break, KSC will play Colby-Sawyer College at the Jacob's Bridge through Autism Tournament at New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord next Tuesday (7:30 p.m.).