KEENE, N.H. 1/11/14 – The Keene State women's basketball team saw its four game winning streak come to an end, falling to Rhode Island College 61-50 in a Little East Conference game played at Spaulding Gym on Saturday.

Keene State drops to 8-4 (1-2 LEC).  Rhode Island College, which has won five of its last six games, improves to 8-5 (2-1 LEC).

Senior Carly Kiernan (Topsfield, Mass.) and junior Courtney Roberts (Sutton, Mass.) each had 13 points to lead the Owls.  Roberts also pulled down a team high seven rebounds.

Sophomore Vandell Andrade (Providence, R.I.) had a game high 16 points and a career high 22 rebounds to lead the Anchorwomen.

Pushing the ball up court, sophomore point guard Kelsey Cognetta (Stamford, Conn.) found junior Roberts for a spin move in the lane that put Keene State up 8-2.  A three-point play by Roberts made it 17-7.  

Later in the half, the momentum switched to RIC.  A 12 -0 run, capped by a put-back by Andrade gave the Anchorwomen their first lead 19-17 at the 7:19 mark.

The two teams traded hoops the rest of the way with RIC clinging to a slim 29-27 lead at the half.

RIC scored the first 10 points of the second half to go up 39-27 on a lay-up by senior Cara Paladino (Arlington, Mass.).

The Owls gradually whittled down RIC's lead.  Kiernan scored six straight points to make it 47-42 midway in the second half.

RIC went up 52-43 on a shot clock beating lay-up by freshman Christian McDuffy (Brockton, Mass.) with 6:33 to play. The Anchorwomen maintained its lead. Andrade hit a lay-up that put RIC up 54-46 with 2:32 to play.

The Owls made one last run at RIC. Roberts hit a put-back shot that cut the lead to four points (54-50) with 1:10 to go, but it was their last points of the game.

Freshman Alex Moore (West Newbury, Mass.), Andrade and sophomore Michele Lagrotteria (Niantic, Conn.) hit free throws down the stretch as RIC held off the Owls.   

"We cut it to four and showed a little bit of heart there, but then we couldn't make a shot.  They're tough on defense," said KSC Coach Keith Boucher. 

"I don't think we were mentally and physical tough," he added.  Anytime a team get 23 offensive rebounds it's going to cause you a lot of problems.  Anytime a team shoots 30 free throws it's going to cause you a lot of problems.  We gave them too many free opportunities to score off put backs and on the foul line.   You can give anyone in our conference those chances to score.  We have to learn from this. "

Freshman Stephanie D'Annolfo (Tyngsborough, Mass.) also finished in double figures for KSC with 10 points.

Moore scored 13 points and senior Stephanie Prusko (Lincoln, R.I.) had 10 points for RIC.  RIC went 23-30 (77%) form the line.

After hitting 12 three-pointer against Lasell College on Thursday, the Owls went 0-11 from behind the arc in the game.   They were also 17-53 (32%) from the field and 16-19 (84%) from the line. Keene State also lost the battle of boards 53-36, including 23 offensive rebounds.

Both teams host LEC games on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.  Keene State plays Western Conn. and Rhode Island College entertains Southern Maine.