NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass.--The Keene State College men's basketball team fell to UMass-Dartmouth 81-68 in the quarterfinals of the Little East Conference tournament on Tuesday night at the Tripp Athletic Center.  The Owls' season comes to an end with a record of 8-17.

Nate Howard (Cheshire, Conn.) led KSC with 16 points, while Tre' Tipton (Stamford, Conn.) netted 14 and Nick Gagliolo (Peabody, Mass.) added 11.  Tom Doyle (Wallingford, Conn.) grabbed a team best nine rebounds.

The Corsairs (16-10) advance to the semifinals, and will play No. 2 seed Rhode Island College on Saturday.  UMD was paced by 18 points apiece from Ryan Walsh and Abi Akanni.  Tucker Bouchard chipped in 13 points and Wale Abraham had 11 points and a game high 18 rebounds.

KSC held an early 6-5 lead as Tipton found Howard down low for a bucket, but the Corsairs responded with a 13-3 run capped by a three point play from Bouchard for a 18-9 lead.  KSC pulled within 23-16 when Gagliolo knocked down a three pointer with 8:49 left in the first half, only to see UMD stretch the lead to 34-22 on a basket from Abraham at the 3:37 mark of the first half.  

The Corsairs led 40-29 at the break, but KSC came out of the gates with a little more urgency in the second half.  Doyle rebounded a miss by Akanni, and set up Howard for a slam that got the Owls within seven, and Tipton scored on the next KSC possession to get the lead down to 45-40.  Another basket by Howard with 12:37 to play drew KSC to within 47-44, only to see the Corsairs rattle off a 9-2 burst for a 56-46 lead.  

The Owls made one final push, as Howard scored six points in a 12-4 spurt that made it a 60-58 game with 5:20 on the clock, but the Corsairs outscored KSC 21-10 the rest of the way.  

"We made some mistakes down the stretch, we got it down to two, made two big mistakes and we couldn't recoup," said head coach Rob Colbert.

The Corsairs paid attention to Howard, who had averaged 23.5 points in the previous two meetings between the teams this season.  "They really croweded him and beat the heck out of him and we couldn't make shots when we kicked it out, or we'd drive but couldn't make free throws," said Colbert.  

KSC was outrebounded 56-42, and shot 62.1% (18-of-29) from the foul line.  The Owls also struggled from distance, making only two of 20 three point attempts.