MONTCLAIR, N.J. 12/28/07 - Prior to his teams' trip to New Jersey for the Steve Adubato One-on-One Classic at Montclair State University, Keene State College men's basketball coach Rob Colbert said he wanted to find out how his team stacked up against national Division III competition.  Colbert got his answer on Friday with the Owls 73-67 opening-round upset win over #24 ranked Calvin (Mich.) College at Panzer Gym.

"This was a huge win for our program," said Colbert.  "I'm very proud of how our kids played, especially after the long break."

Keene State (6-2), which snapped a two game losing streak with the victory, moves on to Saturday's championship game (3 p.m.) where they will face Salem State, which defeated host Montclair State 94-84 in the second first-round game.

Looking to match up against the taller Knights, Colbert gave 6-foot, eight-inch forward Eric Malkowski his first of the season and moved the athletic Travon Little to the off-guard position.  Before fouling out late in the game, Little responded with 14 points while Malkowski chipped in with a productive six points and six rebounds in 16 minutes of play. 

The Owls were also successful in dictating the pace of the game.  "We wanted to speed up the tempo," said Colbert.  "We didn't want to play their more methodical style."

Playing without Kevin Ritter, who was out with a sore knee, Keene State got a big boost with the return of Nate Anderson to its line-up.  The junior forward, who missed the first seven games of the season due to personal issues, hit his first basket four minutes into the game and finished with five points.

Hickey, who spent the game pestering Knight guards, hit a three-pointer to give the Owls' a 27-15 lead at the 9:45 mark.  KSC connected on five of 11 shots from behind the arc on the way to building up a 40-28 halftime lead. Calvin meanwhile struggled hitting just one of 10 three-point attempts in the first half.    

The Knight made several runs at the Owls in the second half.  A three-pointer by Matt Veltema cut the lead to six points 50-44 with 11:33 to play.  KSC pushed its lead up back up to 15 points (59-44) on a 9-0 run caped off by a three-pointer by Tyler Kathan at the 8:40 mark.

Calvin (5-4), which captured national championships in 1992 and 1995 and began its season by knocking off highly regarded Washington (Mo.) University, didn't go down with out a fight. 

Following a clutch three-pointer by KSC's Nick Drouin, Caleb Veldhouse answered with a three-ball in the Knights' next possession to make it 68-62 with 1:54 to play.

The Owls held on despite struggling from the free throw line down the stretch.  The Owls hit just eight of 17 shots from the line in the game. After Shiwon Davis missed the front end of a one-for-one, Calvin's Dustin Smith buried a couple of free throws at the other end of the floor to cut the lead to four points (68-64) with 1:10 left to go.

Drouin, who finished with a team high 16 points, came up big again for the Owls, when he came down with an offensive rebound and hit a key put back shot to make it 70-64 with 54 seconds to play.

Taking advantage of a missed free throw by Davis, Calvin's Veldhouse raced down the floor and buried an 18-foot three-pointer to make it a three-point game (70-67) with 28 seconds to go. 

Fouled with 25 second to play, Anthony Licitra hit a couple of key free throws to push the lead back up to 72-67.  Veldhouse missed a three and Kathan hit a free throw as the Owls hung on for the upset victory.

Licitera scored 13 points and Kathan finished with 12 points for the Owls.

"I though we did a good job on their guards, said Colbert.  "We didn't want them to hurt us with their three-point shooting."

Veldhouse and Derek Griffin who came into the game averaging 20.9 and 15.9 ppg., were held to 12 and nine points respectively.  John Mantel led the Knights with 17 points and eight rebounds.

Opening round wins by Keene State and Salem State sets up a rematch of last year's second round NCAA game won by the Owls 76-75 on a basket by Drouin in the closing seconds.  Colbert said the atmosphere at Montclair resembles the feeling you get at an NCAA tournament.  "Salem has been talking about playing us in a rematch," he said.  "If it's anything like the first game, we should get ready for another wild game."