Fort Lauderdale, FL 12/18/08; Loras College held off a furious
second half rally to beat Keene State 80-65 in the Trip Sports
Basketball Classic Thursday night at Nova Southeastern
University. The Duhawks move to 6-4 and the Owls fall to 6-4,
(0-2) on the road trip.
Loras jumped out to a 12-0 lead capped off by a Ricky
Kolze (Palatine, IL) jumper at the 17:05 mark. The Owls
cracked the scoreboard on a jumper by junior Nate Anderson
(Westminster, MA) one minute later. A jumper by freshman
Quinton McMillian (Springfield, MA) began a 6:32
scoring drought for the Owls. The Duhawks increased their lead to
20 before Owls freshman Derek D'Amours (Agawam,
MA) netted two free throws. Brian
Centella (Grayslake, IL) found
Jason Abbuhl (Red oak, IA) cutting through the
lane for a layup giving Loras their largest lead in the game at 29
points. The Duhawks marched into halftime leading 48-24.
The lights came on in the second half for the Owls.
A D'Amours layup sparked a 9-0 run cutting the lead to
15 in just 40 seconds of play. A trifecta by D'Amours slashed
the lead to 13 with 7:31 to go in the game. Two minutes later
a driving layup by McMillian closed the gap to within 10. A free
throw by Tyler Kathan (Ludlow, VT) cut the margin
to 9 at the 5:00 minute mark, but that's the closest the Owls would
get to the Duhawks.
Loras College had five players finish in double figures.
Centella led all scorers with 19, Kolze, Jake Oeth (Ogden,
IA), Abbuhl and Matt Seaquist (Lansing,
IL) added 15, 14, 12, and 10 respectively. D'Amours
led the owls with a career high 20 points and Anderson capped off
the scoring with 13 points. Kathan hauled off 11 rebounds in
the game.
The Owls are off for the remainder of the holiday season.
They return to action Jan. 6th on the road at SUNY New
Paltz at 7 PM.
