KEENE, N.H.  11/25/08 -The turkey will taste a little better for the Keene State men's basketball team after winning its third straight game, an 88-56 non-conference victory over Western New England College at Spaulding Gym on Tuesday night.

Eleven out of the 13 players who saw action scored at least a point for Keene State (3-2).  Senior forward Tyler Kathan (Ludlow, Vt.) and freshman guard Derek D'Amours (Agawam, Mass.) led the way with 12 points each.  Kathan also pulled down a team high 10 rebounds. Freshman points guard Ryan Bourgeois (Bedford, N.H.) dished out a season high 10 assists.

Sophomore forward Michael Kennedy (Newtown, Conn.) had a game high 14 points to go with seven rebounds for WNEC (1-3).  Senior forward Kyle Fredette (Wallingford, Conn.) finished with 12 points and 14 rebounds, and sophomore guard Andre Duncan (Bronx, N.Y.) also finished in double figures with 10 points.

The Owls, who went up by as many as 11 points (33-22) in the first half, took a 35-26 lead into the locker room.

KSC opened the second half with a 9-2 run to go up 44-28 on a fast-break lay-up by D'Amours at the 16:35 mark. "We thought this was a team we could beat up the floor, so we tried to push it up as much as possible and get some easy hoops," said D'Amours.

An offensive tip-in by senior forward Nate Anderson (Westminster, Mass.) followed by off-balanced lay-up and free throw by sophomore forward Cameron Fisk (Keene, N.H.) upped the Owls' lead to 19 points (49-30) with 14:04 to go.  Another transition basket by freshman forward Matt Petruzzelli (Gardiner, N.Y.) made it a 55-33 game with 11:29 to play.

Following the game, KSC Coach Rob Colbert praised the defensive play of Fisk. "I loved the way he defended a guard. I though he brought a physical presence to guarding Matt Maynard.  I thought we got a contribution from a lot of different people."

"I was a little bit nervous after the first 10 minutes. I thought we were already eating turkey but the last 30 minutes we really responded."

After shooting just 37% from the field in the first half, KSC improved to 45% in the second half and knocked down 13 of its 15 free throw attempts in the game. The owls also hit nine of 24 from behind the arc while WNEC connected on just one of 12 three-point attempts.

After not playing since the 1982-83 season, the two teams have now met twice with the Owls winning both times. 

Keene State plays its first road game of the season, when it travels to NHTI in Concord to face New England College in the Jacob's Bridge through Autism tournament on Tues., Dec. 2 in a 5:30 p.m. game.

Western New England is also off until Dec. 2 it plays at Elms College (7 p.m.)