KEENE, N.H.  2/21/09 - The Keene State College women's basketball team concluded its regular season with a 65-42 Little East Conference victory over UMass-Boston at Spaulding Gym on Saturday afternoon.

            The Owls (19-6, 9-5 LEC), who entered the game locked into the fourth spot in the LEC standings, will host rival and fifth seed Plymouth State in an opening-round LEC tournament game on Tuesday night (5:30 p.m.).  Plymouth and R.I. College entered the day tied for fifth.  Plymouth secured fifth place with a 68-59 overtime win against UMass-Dartmouth while RIC lost to Eastern Conn. 68-48.

            Junior guard Alyssa Sapp (Hartford, Vt.) was the only player who scored in double figures in the game, finishing with 19 points, including four three-pointers. Junior forward Nicole Simmler (Oxford, Mass.) had a game high nine rebounds to go with eight points.   

            Senior forward Leanne Meninger (Everett, Mass.) and freshman guard Laniece Langford (Boston, Mass.) had eight points each for UMass-Boston (4-21, 2-12), who will face second seed Western Conn. in a first-round LEC tournament game on Tuesday night.  Meninger set a UMB record for career games played (103). 

            The Owls broke open a close game with a 13-2 run toward the end of the first half.  Sapp capped the run with a base-line three-pointer that put KSC up by 14 points (29-15) with 2:05 to go.  The Beacons scored the last four points of the half to make it a 29-19 game at the break.

          Keene State scored the first 12 points of the second half, going up 41-19 on consecutive steals and breakaway lay-ups by senior guard Michele Boudreau (Readsboro, Vt.) and Sapp. Boudreau had a fine overall game with eight points, six assists and six steals. Her six steals gives her 75 on the season, breaking the preavious record of 72 set by Brenda Randall in 1987-88.  

          KSC knocked down 11 of its 27 attempts from behind the arc. 

         Prior to the game, Keene State honored seniors Jenn Kinney (Salem, N.H.) and Boudreau who were playing their final home regular season games at Spaulding Gym.

        Both KSC and UMB teams wore pink warm-up shirts as part of their participation in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Pink Zone week fight against breast cancer.  The Owls wore the No. 10 on their shooting shirts in honor of former Owl point guard Tina Gonyea, a breast cancer survivor.

       Keene State also had a moment of silence before the game in honor of Professor  Dr. Johanna Kolodziejski, who died on February 3 at the age of 32 at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

     "It was a great atmosphere. We had a lot of fans here today to support the breast cancer awareness drive and support Dr. K (Kolodziekski), said Boudreau.  "It was a nice win heading into the tournament."

      "It was nice to honor Dr. K, she's one of my biology professors," said Kinney.  We're looking forward to having a home tournament game on Tuesday."