WORCESTER, Mass.--The Keene State College men's basketball team resumed action with a 72-67 loss to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) at Harrington Gymnasium on Wednesday night.

Records

• Keene State: 6-3
• WPI: 8-2

How It Happened

Sean Doncaster's three with 25 seconds to go put the Engineers in front for good, after the Owls had rallied from a five point deficit with seven minutes left to take the lead.

Keene State received a boost from Jimmy Layman; the junior made his first career start and scored a career high 17 points, knocking down all five of his three point attempts while grabbing eight rebounds and blocking two shots to lead the Owls.  Matt Ozzella added 14 points and seven rebounds, while Jaquel Edwards had 12 points and Ty Nichols had 10.  The Engineers got 23 points and 10 boards from Ian Converse, along with 13 points from Sean Doncaster and 11 each from James Loring and Dave Zielinski.

Layman knocked down a pair of early threes and Jaquel Edwards' layup gave the Owls an early 10-4 lead.  Edwards canned a three with 12:17 left for a 15-11 advantage, but the Engineers scored the next seven points for an 18-15 advantage before Layman nailed another three with 10:10 to go.  The junior made his fourth triple of the half with 7:06 on the clock for a 23-22 lead.  Five straight points from Zielinski gave WPI a 27-24 lead, but the Owls closed out the half on an 8-4 run to take a 32-31 lead at halftime.

Layman picked up where he left off in the second half, with a three pointer on the Owls' first possession, and KSC increased the lead to 40-34 on Ozzella's layup with 16:47 remaining.  Ozzella put back a Deonte Vinson miss for a 47-43 lead at the 11:35 mark, then nailed a three with 9:57 to go for a 50-47 lead.  Converse and Doncaster connected on three pointers on consecutive possessions to put WPI back in front, and Converse's layup with 6:50 left made it 57-52.

After Doncaster's three with 5:23 left put the Engineers up 60-54, the Owls rallied, outscoring WPI 9-2 over the next three minutes to take a 63-62 lead.  Ozzella made another three to get the Owls within three, and Dizel Wright went 1-for-2 from the free throw line with 2:27 left.  After Doncaster and Nichols traded baskets, Loring scored inside with 54 seconds left to put the Engineers up 66-65.  Converse fouled Ozzella, who made both his shots for a 67-66 lead, but Doncaster drained the go-ahead three with 25 ticks on the clock to put WPI up for good.

The Owls had two chances to go ahead or tie; Edwards three with 15 seconds left was off the mark, but Converse made just one free throw for a 70-67 lead with 10 seconds to go.  Nichols also missed from three with four seconds remaining, and Converse made two more free throws to ice the game.

In The Paint

• Bench scoring was a key factor; the Owls got just five points from their reserves, while the Engineers got 28 points from their non-starters.  Keene State was also held to its lowest shooting percentage of the season, making 22 of 61 field goal attempts (36.1%).
• WPI outrebounded Keene State 45-34, with five players getting six or more rebounds.
• Keene State remains winless against WPI.  The Owls have never won in three all-time meetings against the Engineers.
• The game was a homecoming for KSC head coach Ryan Cain.   Cain played at WPI from 2003-07, and then served as an assistant coach for the Engineers for eight seasons before taking over at Keene State in 2015.  The Engineers' all-time leading scorer, Cain was inducted into the WPI Hall of Fame in 2009.

Up Next

• Keene State hosts the University of New England at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, December 30.
• WPI is in action on Friday afternoon, welcoming Eastern Nazarene for a 2 p.m. tip-off.