WILLIMANTIC, CONN. 1/22/14 – The Keene State College women's basketball team gave Eastern Conn. State all it could handle before falling to the Warriors 71-66 in a Little East Conference game at Geissler Gymnasium on Wednesday night. The game was rescheduled due to Tuesday's snow storm.

Dropping their fourth straight LEC game, the Owls fall to 8-7 (1-5 LEC).  Tied for first place in the LEC with Rhode Island College, the Warriors, who have won eight of their last nine games, improve to 12-4 (5-1 LEC)

Sophomore Kelsey Cognetta (Stamford, Conn.) scored 15 points and freshman Jovan Kingwood (Norwalk, Conn.) came off the bench to net a season high 14 points to lead the Owls.  Freshman Amanda Petrow (Methuen, Mass.) had a monster game on the board, pulling down a season high 16 rebounds to go with nine points.  It's the most rebounds grabbed by a KSC women's player in a game since Courtney Cirillo had 17 against Worcester State and Plymouth State in the 2011-12 season.

Freshman Jordyn Nappi (Southington, Conn.) had a game high 22 points, including several key three-pointers down the stretch and sophomore Jill Retrosky (Pittsfield, Mass.) finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds to lead Eastern.

Trailing 27-21 at the break, the Owls made several runs at the Warriors in the second half.  KSC took its first lead (43-41) on a lay-up by freshman Sarah Kober (Easthampton, Mass.) at the 10:19 mark. 

The two teams exchanged the lead several times from there.  Kober hit a lay-up to get the Owls to within one (61-59) with 2:28 to play.  After sophomore Erin Brooks (Billerica, Mass.) hit a couple of free throws, Cognetta made a lay-up to make it 63-61 with 2:18 to play. 

Nappi drained her fifth tree-pointer of the game to make it 66-61, Cognetta answered with another lay-up to cut the lead to 66-63 with 56 seconds on the clock. 

Nappi hit a jumper and free throw giving ECSU a 69-63 lead with 18 seconds to go.  Freshman Stephanie D'Annolfo (Tyngsborough, Mass.), who filled up the score sheet with 10 points, five rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal, knocked down a three-pointer with three second to play, but Ritrosky put the game away with a couple of free throws.

Junior Christan Wojtas (Amherst N.H.) also had 10 points for the Owl, who shot 37% (23-62) from the field, hit seven of their 16 three-pointers (44%) and went 13-16 (81%) from the line.

Eastern went 7-18 (39%) from behind the arc and scored 20 its points (20-25) from the line.  The Warriors had a 40-36 advantage on the glass.

Keene State returns home to face UMass-Boston on Saturday (1 p.m.).