KEENE, N.H. 1/25/14- Junior Tom Doyle (Wallingford, Conn.) led a balanced Owl attack with 18 points and sophomore Nick Gagliolo (Peabody, Mass.) had 14 points off the bench to lead Keene State over UMass-Boston 78-66 in Little East Conference men's basketball played before a large and enthusiastic crowd  at Spaulding Gym on Saturday.

The win snapped a two game losing skid for the Owls (6-10, 3-4 LEC), who are trying to itch their way back up the conference standings. UMass-Boston (5-12, 0-7 LEC) is still looking for its first LEC win of the season.

"We finally shot the ball a little bit better and had a pretty good balanced attack," said KSC Coach Rob Colbert.  "There are so many areas we need to improve in with nine games to go.  January is a grind, but I'm proud of our kids for clawing back, especially after we had our heads handed to us against Eastern Conn."  

Sophomore Nate Howard (Cheshire, Conn.) registered his seventh double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds and freshman Jaquel Edwards (Manchester, Conn.) chipped in with 10 points and eight rebounds for the Owls.  

"They're pretty athletic, but we played them before and knew what to expect," said Edwards. "This is a big win for us. We just want to climb from here and keep going."

Sophomore Omar Benabicha (Saugus, Mass.) scored 18 points and junior Carl Joseph (Brockton, Mass.) finished with 16 points to lead the Beacons.

Freshman Jeff Lunn (Nashua, N.H.) gave Keene State its first lead (17-15) at the 11:03 mark of a fast-paced, up-and-down first half.

With the Owls nursing a slim 28-26 lead, Howard prevented a fast break hoop by the Beacons when he raced down court and swatted away a shot by Joseph. KSC scored the final six points of the half to take a 33-26 at the break.

Doyle scored the first five points of the second half to push the Owls lead up to 38-26.

Later in the half, Doyle and Gagliolo drained consecutive three-pointers, enabling KSC to maintain its lead (49-38) at the 14:28 mark.

Howard continued to make his presence felt in the paint. After blocking a lay-up by sophomore Selim Omerovic (Saugus, Mass.), he hit a lay-up at the other end of the court to make it a 56-43 game.  Later in the half, freshman Lucas Hammel (Methuen, Mass.), who finished with six assists and four steals, made a steal and connected with Edwards streaking down the court for a lay-up, giving KSC a 64-45 lead with 9:48 to go.

 A few minutes later, freshman Matt Ozzella (Medway, Mass.) found Howard all alone for a slam, making it 70-51 with 7:45 to go. 

Benabicha hit a lay-up to cut the lead to 10 points (72-62) with 1:54 to go.  However, Howard had a three-point play on a dunk and free throw and Gagliolo hit a jumper pushing the lead back up to 77-64 with 47 seconds to go. 

Keene State shot 43% from the field (28-65), hit seven of its 17 three-pointers (41%) and went 15-24 (63%) from the line. KSC out-rebounded the Beacons 50-38, 17 coming off the offensive boards.

Keene State travels to Plymouth on Tuesday for a game against the Panthers (7:30 p.m.).