NORTH DARTMOUTH, MASS. 2/19/11 – The Keene State College men's basketball team dropped its final regular season game, falling on the road to UMass-Dartmouth 87-74 on Saturday.  KSC has lost its last five games at the Tripp Center.

The game had no bearing on the final regular Little East standings as Keene State (16-9, 8-6 LEC) and UMass-Dartmouth (11-14, 7-7 LEC) were already locked into the fourth and fifth spots respectively.

The two teams will turn around and face each other in a quarterfinal tournament game at Spaulding Gym on Tuesday (7 p.m.).  KSC lost at home to UMD 106-100 back on Jan. 15.

UMass-Dartmouth pulled away from the Owls in the final minutes of play, scoring the last nine points of the game.  

Keene State took it only lead of the second half (68-67) on a conventional three-point play by junior Steve Boudreau (North Andover, Mass.) with 8:24 to play.  Junior Eric Fazio (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) hit one of two free throws to cut UMD's lead to 78-74 with 3:34 to go.  It would be the last point of the game for KSC.

The Corsairs late game run, included a three-point basket by Kyle Yeadon that put UMD up 85-74 with 1:38 to play.

Junior Anthony Mariano (Naugatuck, Conn.) led the Owls with 19 points.  Sophomore Ryan Martin (Wayne, Maine) scored 14 points and Boudreau finished with 11 points for KSC.  Sophomore Rashad Wright (Agawam, Mass.) had a team high eight rebounds to go with nine points.

Colin Burns and Brandon Stephens each finished with 18 points leading the Corsairs. 

After shooting 59% in the first half, KSC cooled down, hitting just eight of its 30 shots (27%) in the second half.  UMD had a 44-31 advantage on the boards.