SPRINGFIELD, Mass. 12/1/09 - Led by 22 points from Derek D'Amours (Agawam, Mass.) and 21 points from Geoffrey Woodbury (Hyde Park, Mass.), the Keene State College men's basketball team erased a 13 point second-half deficit, to defeat Springfield College 89-84 in overtime Tuesday night at Blake Arena. With the win KSC improves to 3-3 while the loss drops the Pride to 1-4 on the young season.

"These guys really surprise me at how resilient they really are," said Head Coach Rob Colbert. "This is a young group of guys with limited experience and you would think they would have to learn how to battle back but these kids just have it."

In the first-half, Keene State jumped out to a 10 point lead on a pair of free throws from Woodbury to make it 22-12 with 10 minutes on the clock. The freshman finished the first half leading all scorers with 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting from the floor and 2-of-3 three shooting from beyond the arc.

The Pride would fight back, with a 12-2 run of their own, capped off by a pair of free throws by Matt Cavalieri (West Warwick, R.I.) to even the game at 24 apiece with 6:54 remaining in the half.   

Springfield would continue to stay hot, and extend their lead to seven points, on a lay-up and a free throw from senior forward Pat Crean (Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.) to give the Pride a 39-32 lead heading into the break.

The second half saw the hosts jump out to a 13 point lead 11:03 remaining on a jumper by Crean to make it 55-42. KSC battled back with a 16-2 run topped off by a layup from D'Amours with 6:30 to play in regulation. "Derek added another dimension to his game this year in that when the shots aren't falling he can get to the rim," said Colbert. "If you were to look at past scouting reports on him they would say he can shoot the three, but now he can take it to the rim and he played big down the stretch for us."

The Pride again took the lead back, answering back with a 6-0 run to make it 64-58 on a three pointer from Cavalieri with 5:18 left.

D'Amours answered back for the Owls, just under two minutes later, with a three-ball from the corner to even the game at 68 apiece.

After a steal by freshman Anthony Mariano (Naugatuck, Conn.), D'Amours buried another bucket to put the Owls up 70-68. Freshman forward Eric Fazio (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) added another free throw for the 71-68 lead with 11 seconds remaining.

Springfield didn't quit, as Crean netted a free throw, and missed his final attempt on purpose to give the Pride a chance. Sophomore forward Ryan Coburn (Coventry, R.I.) came up with the big rebound and put back to tie the game at 71 with a second left on the clock to force the game into overtime.

In the overtime, freshman Tyler Grillo's (Saugus, Mass.) layup with 3:23 left gave KSC the lead for good. The Owls would extend their lead to as many as eight on three separate occasions, capped off by a dunk from sophomore Cody Snow (Leyden, Mass.) for the Keene State road victory.

Fazio started the game 4-4 from the field, to extend his consecutive shot streak to 15 before missing a shot with 8:49 in the second half. The freshman finished with 14 points and eight rebounds in the game. Mariano was a bucket shy of a double-double with eight points and 10 rebounds for the Owls.

A key in this contest was Keene State's ability to make free throws (33-of-42 for .786), while Springfield was not able to take advantage from the charity stripe (22-of-38 for .579). The Owls hit 12-of-15 in the overtime alone.

Keene State continues their road trip with a non-conference game at Tufts University at 7 p.m. on Thursday. On Saturday, the Owls will open up their 2009 LEC schedule with a game at UMass-Boston at 3 p.m.