WILLIMANTIC, Conn. 2/8/11 – After only scoring a combined 49 points in the first-half, Keene State and Eastern Conn. State erupted for 93 total second half points led by Warrior junior Nick Nedwick's (Irvington, N.Y.)  game-high 28 points in Eastern's 76-66 victory over the Owls on Tuesday night at Geissler Gymnasium.

Nedwick, in the first half, netted his 1,000th career point in the win.

The loss drops the Owls to 14-8 overall and 6-5 in Little East Conference play, while the win improves the Warriors to 15-7 overall and 8-3 in league action.

KSC jumped out to their biggest lead of the first half at the 15:39 mark on a jumper from junior Steve Boudreau (North Andover, Mass.) to make it 8-3 Owls. Eastern Conn. fired back with a 12-2 run of their own, capped by a three pointer from junior Nedwick with just over 10 minutes remaining to take a 15-10 lead.

The Warriors took their biggest lead of the first stanza at the 7:51 mark on a three pointer by sophomore Mike Garrow (Terryville, Conn.) to give Eastern Conn. a 21-14 advantage.

The Owls clawed their way back, and cut the deficit to 23-22 on a layup by sophomore Geoffrey Woodbury (Hyde Park, Mass.) with 2:56 left in the half. Nedwick scored his 1,000th point with a jumper from the left side with 2:26 left in the first half that gave Eastern a 25-22 lead. A Layup from senior Broderick Sawyer (Norwalk, Conn.) gave the Warriors a 27-22 lead at the break.

In the second half, Eastern jumped out to a 41-29 lead at the 14:49 mark on a layup in the paint from Sawyer forcing the Owls to call a timeout.

KSC again fought back right out of the timeout as junior Cody Snow (Leydan, Mass.) drove to the lane and kissed a bucket home off the glass. After a Warrior turnover sophomore Ryan Martin (Wayne, Maine) drained a wide open three pointer to cut the deficit to 41-34 with 14:20 remaining.

Sawyer's face-up jumper with 11:49 left gave the Warriors a 50-36 lead. A few plays later, after junior Ollie Hunter (Bedford, N.H.) hit a pair of free-throws for the Owls, Sawyer's put-back layup gave Eastern a 14 point lead again at 52-38.

Sawyer gave Eastern their largest lead with a pair of free-throws to make it 58-38 with 8:45 left to play.

With 2:45 to play, junior Derek D'Amours (Agawam, Mass.) completed an old-fashioned three-point-play to cut the lead to 66-56. After a quick shot and miss by the Warriors, D'Amours' layup with 2:16 remaining cut the lead to single digits at 66-58.

D'Amours answered again with a three-pointer at the 1:41 mark to make it 68-61.

On the next play, Martin stepped up to take a charge to get the Owls the ball back. On the ensuing possession D'Amours was fouled on a three pointer and makes 2-of-3 with 1:36 left to make it 68-63.

But that is as close as the Owls would get, as Nedwick would come up with a steal and a fastbreak layup to lift the Warriors to a 76-66 victory.

Behind Nedwick, Sawyer finished with 20 points on eight-of-12 shooting from the field for the Warriors.

D'Amours was the only KSC player to reach double-figures scoring 19 points in just 20 minutes of action.

The Owls will be back in action Saturday, with their final regular season home game against Western Conn. State at 3 p.m. at Spaulding Gymnasium.