SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 11/24/09 - The Keene State men's basketball dropped its first road game of the season, falling to Western New England College 90-72 at the Alumni Healthful Living Center in Springfield on Tuesday night.

Keene goes to 2-2 while the Golden Bears (1-2) post their first win of the season.

Senior guard Rick Johnson (Springfield, MA) led a balanced scoring attack with a game-high 22 points for WNEC. Johnson had one of the top performances of his career after adding six rebounds, six assists, and two steals.

The Golden Bears' reserves play a hug role in the win by contributing 31points as sophomore guard Andre Shaw (Jamaica, NY) netted 16 points after making 7-of-9 shots, including both three-pointers.

Junior guard Chris Devine (Wilbraham, MA) had a strong performance with 14 points, eight rebounds, and four assists. Also hitting the double figure mark were senior guard Mike Booker (Springfield, MA) with 14 points and senior forward Brendan Murphy (West Springfield, MA) with 10 points.

Western New England College (1-3) led 46-36 at halftime and had a 16-point advantage at 65-49 following a pair of free throws by Johnson with 12:16 left.

Keene State went on a 13-0 run to get within 65-62 after a basket by freshman guard Geoffrey Woodbury (Hyde Park, MA) with 8:17 remaining. Freshman forward Orlando Zayas (Boston, MA), seeing his first action of the season,  helped the Owls get back in the contest by scoring all five of his points in a two-minute span to start the comeback.

WNEC maintained its composure and gradually built the lead back up to eight at 74-66 when Johnson again converted a pair of charity shots at the 4:30 mark. Woodbury's basket made it 74-67 just 28 seconds later, but the visitors were able to score only five points the rest of the way.

"I don't think we really got in sync.  I think we made some mistakes with match-ups that hurt us and it seems like we were missing a step," said KSC Coach Rob Colbert.  "The score doesn't shot it, but I thought we made some improvement in terms of half court execution, but we still have to make shots. But it was the second game in a row that we got beat in transition, so we have to fix that."

Concerning the second half comeback, Colbert said "I don't think we have enough fire-power right now.  We don't have enough guys making shots and making plays.  But we'll keep plugging away.  It's going to be a season of highs and lows."

Sophomore forward Derek D'Amours (Agawam, MA) led Keene state with 17
points and six rebounds. Woodbury finished with 12 points and seven rebounds coming off the bench while sophomore forward Cody Snow (Leyden,MA) chipped-in with 10 points and nine rebounds.

Western New England College shot 49.2% from the field and held KSC to only 28.2% despite the Owls having a big 61-41 edge in rebounding with 31 offensive boards.