KEENE, N.H. 1/5/13 – The University of Southern Maine defeated Keene State College 90-83 in a battle of top men's basketball teams in the Little East Conference at Spaulding Gym on Saturday. 

            Southern Maine (8-5, 3-0 LEC) moves into sole possession of first place in the LEC while the Owls fall to 7-5 (2-1 LEC). It was the first win by USM over KSC in 10 meetings.

            Senior Sean Bergeron (Kennebunk, Me.), who hit five three-pointers in the second half, led a balanced Husky offense with 21 points to go with seven rebounds. Junior Conor Sullivan (Scarborough, Me.) added 19 points and senior Alex Kee (Bath, Me.), the top-scorer in the LEC, finished with 17 points.

            Senior Eric Fazio (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) scored 19 points and seniors Rashad Wright (Agawam, Mass.) and Ryan Martin (Wayne, Me.) each finished with 17 points leading the Owls.  Wright pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds  

            KSC Coach Rob Colbert said the game came down to defense.  "We didn't guard their shooters," he said.  "We made some adjustments, but we didn't execute those changes at all.  They were able to free up their three-point shooters in transition. We just didn't guard. To give up 90 points is really difficult to overcome."  

            Keene State fell behind early in the game.  A breakaway lay-up by Sullivan gave the Huskies a 21-12 lead at the 13:21 mark. USM maintained its lead late in the half.  Freshman Cole Libby (Buxton, Me.) hit a reverse-layup to make it 32-25 with 5:49 to go.

            Keene state cut into the Huskies lead in the finals minutes of the half. Fazio  made a conventional three-point play and sophomore Tom Doyle (Wallingford, Conn.) hit a la-up to tie the score (32-all) with 3:22 to go. Fazio gave KSC its first lead of the game (34-32) on a put-back with 2:30 to play.

            Inserted into the line-up in the closing seconds, Martin hit a fall-away three-pointer that enabled the Owls to go to the locker room trailing 38-37 at the half.

            USM continued to lead into the second half. Senior Mike Poulin (Kennebunk, Me) hit a jumper to make it a 68-58 game at the 7:45 mark.  Later, Kee hit five straight points, including a three-pointer from the right corner to make it a 79-68 game with 3:55 to play.

            The Owls made one last run at the Huskies.  Fazio hit a pair from the line to cut the lead to 82-77 with 1:10 to play. However, Bergeron and Kee connected on free throws and USM used its strong defensive play to hold off the Owls down the stretch.

             Doyle also finished in double-figures for the Owls with 12 points.  Coming into the game 22 points shy of the 1,000-point career mark, senior Anthony Mariano (Naugatuck, Conn.) was held to seven points.

            Junior James Odneal (Pontiac, Mich.) also had 13 points for USM.

            KSC lost the game despite having a 47-38 advantage on the boards.

            KSC was 30-72 (42%) from the field, shot 5-18 from behind the arc (28%) and was 18-20 (90%) from the line.

            Southern Maine shot 33-70 (47%) from the field, hit eight of its 19 three-point shots (42%) and was 16-26 (61%) from the line.

            Keene State will play its next three games on the roar, starting with a LEC game at Western Conn. on Tuesday (7:30 p.m.).