KEENE, N.H. 12/4/10 – The Keene State men's basketball team opened its Little East Conference schedule with a 87-64 victory over UMass-Boston at Spaulding Gym on Saturday.

The Owls, who led from wire-to-wire, improve to 6-1 (1-0 LEC) while the Beacons drop to 4-2 (0-1 LEC). 

Just about every player on the Owl bench found their way on to the score sheet.  Junior Derek D'Amours (Agawam, Mass.), who knocked down three shots from behind the arc, had a team high 12 points while junior Anthony Mariano (Naugatuck, Conn.) finished with 11 points. Sophomore Rashad Wright (Agawam, Mass.) pulled down a team high eight rebounds.

Junior Michael Mitchell Jr. (Boston, Mass.) had a game high 15 points and senior Pat Joseph (Queens, N.Y.) finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Beacons.

Keene State scored the first eight points of the game and never looked back to post the win.  Junior Cody Snow (Leydan, Mass.) netted three straight hoops to put the Owls up 25-16.  KSC used the three-ball to add to its lead.  Mariano, Eric Fazio (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.), and Ryan Martin (Wayne, Maine) each connected from behind the arc to push the Owls lead up to 36-18 with 5:01 to go in the half.

Later in the half, sophomore Geoff Woodbury (Hyde Park, Mass.) made a couple of nice plays as KSC continued to push the ball up court.  Woodbury hit a reverse lay-up, and after making a steal on UMB's next possession, fed a streaking D'Amours to make it a 48-22 game.  D'Amours, had 11 first half points for KSC. The Owls, who led 52-28 at the break, shot 56% (20-36) from the field, hit seven of its 13 three-point attempts, and were a perfect five-for-five from line in the first half. 

KSC Coach KSC Coach Rob Colbert said that defense keyed the Owls' quick start.  "I think we really did a nice job of guarding without having to press," he said.  "We didn't allow them to get on track and that spurred our offense."

"It was definitely nice to come out and win our first conference game," said junior Ollie Hunter (Bedford, N.H.).  "We had a comfortable lead the whole game and I'm really proud of the guys and the coaching staff."

Colbert also was pleased with the play of D'Amours.  "Derek had his touch going, but I was proud of the way he defended, "said Colbert.  "We've been waiting for Derek to put the effort in defensively for a long time and he's worked exceptionally hard. So I'm really proud of him." 

Keene State led by as many as 31 points (87-56) in the second half.

KSC had a good shooting day, hitting 10 of its 16 (62%)three-point shots and going 17-for-21 (81%) from the line.

Prior to the game, Keene State had a banner ceremony for its 2006-07 NCAA Sweet 16 team.  "What a great day," said Colbert. "We're very blessed to have the program we have and the support we have from our fans and the alumni."

Keene State hosts Mass. College of Liberal Arts on Tuesday.