NORTH DARMOUTH, MASS. 2/29/08 - The third-seeded Keene State College men's basketball team saw its season come to a close with a 68-63 loss to second-seed Rhode Island College at the Tripp Athletic Center at UMass-Dartmouth on Friday night.
The Owls conclude their campaign with a 16-11 record. R.I. College (21-6), the defending LEC tournament champs, will face the winner of the semifinal match between top seed UMass-Dartmouth and fourth seed Southern Maine in Saturday's tournament final.
The two teams battled to a 31-all halftime stalemate. The Owls, who shot 42.9% form the field couldn't take advantage of a poor-shooting half by the Anchormen (36.1%). RIC did help themselves with a 25-17 advantage off the boards, including a decided 8-1 lead in the offensive rebound category.
The Anchormen, who hit just two of 12 three-point attempts, started to heat up early in the second half. Consecutive three-pointers by junior guard Cameron Stewart (Newport, R.I.) put RIC up 39-34 at the 16:04 mark.
The Owls hung tough with the Anchormen. KSC junior forward Tyler Kathan (Ludlow, Vt.) scored eight straight points to knot the score at 46 all with 10:04 to go.
Junior guard Tirrell Hill (Bronx, N.Y.) quickly answered with a three-ball giving RIC a lead it wouldn't relinquish the rest of the game.
KSC made one last run at the Anchormen in the final minutes of play. Trailing by six (62-56) with 2:10 to go, the Owls made it a one point game (62-61) on a three-pointer by Kathan with 1:10 to play.
Freshman guard Tavon Brantley (Bridgeport, Conn.) got the deficit down to one point again with a pair of free throws with 29.7 seconds left on the clock. KSC was forced to foul and Hill hit several clutch free throws in the closing seconds to account for the final score.
Kathan, who hit seven of 12 shots from the floor, led the Owls with 19 points and six rebounds. Senior forward Nick Drouin (Weare, N.H.) had 10 points and seven rebounds, senior forward Travon Little (Danbury, Conn.) finished with nine points, and senior forward Nate Anderson (Westminster, Mass.) added seven points and a team high nine rebounds.
Hill scored a team high 22 points and Stewart finished with 13 points for RIC, who had a 14-5 advantage off the offensive boards.
