MEDFORD, Mass. 12/3/09 - The Keene State College men's basketball team, who trailed by as many as 19 in the game, cut the Tufts University lead to six in the second half before falling to the Jumbos 91-79 Thursday night at Cousens Gymnasium. The loss drops the Owls to 3-4 on the season, while the win gives Tufts their first victory of 2009 and makes them 1-4.

KSC again was hampered by a slow start, only putting up 26 points on 8-of-28 shooting from the floor, but were only down 11 (37-26) at the break. Sophomore forward Derek D'Amours (Agawam, Mass.) scored 12 of the Owls 26 points in the first stanza.

In the second half, the Jumbos extended their lead to the biggest of the game on a give-and-go layup from freshman forward Scott Anderson (Sudbury, Mass.) to make it 47-28 with 16:16 left.

Over the next six minutes the Owls would fight back by going on a 24-11 run, capped by a three pointer from freshman guard Geoffrey Woodberry (Hyde Park, Mass.) to cut the Tufts lead to 58-52 with 10:19 left to play. Woodbury scored eight of his 13 points during the KSC comeback.

After that, KSC would never get closer than seven, as Jumbo forward James Beyel (Ocean City, N.J.) scored 15 of his 29 points in the second half and forwards Jon Pierce (Belmont, Mass.) and James Long (Norwell, Mass.) both finished with double-digit rebounds to lead the host Jumbos past the Owls 91-79.

Keene State was out-rebounded 53-26 on the night, but followed up a poor shooting performance in the first half (28.6%), by going 18-34 (52.9%) in the second half to finish at just under 42% for the game. From distance the young Owls shot 7-for-15 (46.7%) in the losing effort.

Tufts went 2-of16 (12.5%) from beyond the arc in the game, but shot lights out from the floor in the second half, going 18-30 (60%) down the stretch to ensure their first victory of the season.

D'Amours led the Owls with 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the floor and 4-of-6 from the charity stripe and grabbed a team-high eight boards. Anthony Mariano (Naugatuck, Conn.)  netted all 14 of his points in the second half, while Woodberry had 13 points and five rebounds. Sophomore Cody Snow (Leyden, MA) added eight points, four rebounds and three steals to the cause.

The Owls return to action this Saturday, December 5th, as they will travel to UMass.-Boston for their first LEC game of the year at 3 p.m.