GORHAM, MAINE, 1/7/12 – The Keene State women's basketball team dropped its first Little East Conference game of the season, falling to the University of Southern Maine 65-58 at Hill Gymnasium in Gorham, Maine on Saturday. 

          The loss drops the Owls record to 7-3 overall and 2-1 in the LEC while Southern Maine improves to 10-3 overall and 2-1 in the Little East Conference.

         Senior forward Courtney Cirillo (Windsor Locks, Conn.) led the Owls with 17 points and six rebounds.  Junior guard Siobhan Carnell (Quincy, Mass.) and freshman guard Rachael Brucks (Suwanee, Ga.) added 12 and 10 points off of the bench respectively.  It was a season high for Brucks.  Senior guard Meghan Farrell (Chester, Vt.) grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds. 

         Junior forward Haley Jordan (Falmouth, Maine) scored 21 points to lead three players in double-figures USM rolled to their sixth straight win.

         Jordan was 7-for-13 from the field and 6-for-9 from the free throw line.  She added six rebounds and four steals.  Senior forward Courtney Cochran (Waite, Maine) notched her conference and team-leading seventh double-double of the season on 12 points and 11 rebounds     

         Narrowly ahead of the Owls 36-30 with 16:28 to play following a traditional three-point play from Cirillo, the Huskies used a 12-0 run over the next six minutes to pull away from the Owls.  Cochran scored four of USM's points in the run, while Gallagher drilled a three-pointer and added a long jumper for five points as Southern Maine led 48-30 with 9:58 to play. The Huskies turned up the pressure defensively in the run, forcing Keene into a 0-for-6 effort from the field with six turnovers.

       "We turned the ball over too many times in key situations and got down when our shots weren't going in," said KSC Coach Keith Boucher.  "We're not making the game adjustments we need to make to win the big games."

       "We dug ourselves into a hole getting down by 18 points," said senior Sarah Laudano.  "We're not playing hard for the entire 40 minutes.  We can't have those lapses against good teams. 

         The Huskies maintained a comfortable double-digit lead and led the Owls 53-39 with 6:45 on the clock, before the Owls strung together an 8-2 run to pull to within eight of the Huskies with 2:18 to play.  Brucks started the run with a three and Cirillo scored the next five Owl points for a 55-47 USM lead.

         The Huskies were able to close out the game from the free throw line making eight for 10 down the stretch, while Brucks canned a buzzer-beating three for the Owls for the 65-58 final.

            The Hill Gymnasium hasn't been kind to the Owls over the years.  Keene State (0-21) has yet to win a game at the gym since joining the LEC in the 1997-98 season.  "They have a sense of security in their home gym and they should," said Boucher.   "It's like going to Duke and playing at Cameron Indoor Stadium.  That's the feeling they have up here." 

        "We have a another big conference game against Western Conn on Tuesday, so we'll see how much we learn from this game and move on," said Boucher.

        Keene State game against Western Connecticut will begin at 5:30 p.m.  

       (Portions courtesy of USM Sports Information)