'DANBURY, CONN. 01/10/06 - Matt Hickey (Mahopac, N.Y.) had a career-high 31 points, including seven three-pointers, and Stanley Chamblain (Chelsea, Mass.) finished with 20 points and six treys to lead the Keene State College men's basketball team to a 94-70 Little East Conference victory over Western Connecticut State University at Feldman Arena in Danbury, Conn. on Tuesday night.

It was the second straight win for the Owls (10-3, 4-0 LEC), who remain undefeated in conference play.  Western Conn. falls to 7-6 and 0-4 in the LEC.

Hickey and Chamblain had a three-point shooting contest in the first half. Hickey connected on his first six attempts from three-point range, shooting seven of 12 from beyond the arc on the night, while Chamblain connected on six of seven attempts from three-point land.  Keene State went 15 of 33 from long-range, five short of the KSC mark for three-pointers in a game set in a victory over LIU-Southampton (12/05/92). 

"It's all starting to come back to me right now.  My shot was shakey and Coach (Brian) Pickering helped me out with my form," said Chamblain.  "I owe it all to my coaches and teammates, they all stuck by me even though I started off the season shakey.  I'm in a nice groove right now, hopefully it doesn't go a way." 

We were moving the ball around offensively and I just got some open looks and let it fly," added Hickey. Offensively we really played well.  We set up the offense well. Most of our shots were coming from inside and out.  So we have to reward our big men for getting the ball back to us." 

"Hickey was just special tonight. That was the kid that we recruited.  And Stanley Chamblain was the same story line, that's the kid we recruited," said KSC Coach Rob Colbert. Both of them had it going tonight from behind the arc.

KSC jumped out to a quick 15-7 lead on a trio of three-pointers by Hickey, and a free-throw and jump shot by freshmen Tyler Kathan (Ludlow, Vt.) and Nate Anderson (Westminster, Mass.), respectively.  The Colonials cut the deficit to within one (15-14) on a three-point conversion by Andrew Snell (Bogota, N.J.) at the 12:56 mark, but the Owls outscored Western Conn. 23-9 over the next seven minutes to take a 15-point lead (38-23) with just over five minutes remaining in the half. 

Keene State held a 59-32 advantage going into the break.

The Owls held its biggest lead (34 points) when Hickey hooked up with Kathan for an alley-oop with 17:46 to play in the game. 

Hickey scored 24 of his points in the first half, hitting nine of 15 shots overall and a perfect six of six from the charity stripe. Ben Maynard (Nobleboro, Me.) had a team-high nine rebounds. 

Greg Cole (Terrytown, N.Y.) led Western Conn. with 27 points, while Jamaal Robinson (Meriden, Conn.) chipped in with 13 points off the bench. 

Keene State will host the University of Southern Maine on Saturday (3 p.m.) One of our goals tonight was to get a conference win tonight.  I'm proud of the effort and proud of the energy and we'll get back to the drawing board for Saturday," Colbert said.