WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The Keene State College women's basketball team limited Williams College to a season-low 48 points, a season-worst 32 percent shooting effort from three-point range, and a 40 percent shooting mark from the field overall, but remained unable to find their offense away from Spaulding Gymnasium as they started slow and never recovered in a 48-35 loss to the Ephs at Chandler Gymnasium Friday night in the first round of the Shooting Touch Tournament.

Records

• Keene State:  2-4
• Williams:  5-2

How It Happened
The Owls fell into a 17-3 deficit less than nine minutes into the game and despite hanging around to some extent – including entering the final quarter within ten – dropped to 0-4 on the road, shooting under 30 percent in each of the last two games as visitors.  KSC is surrendering only 53.7 points per game in their last three road contests and has limited their opponents to 36 percent shooting from the floor in their four games away from home, but it has not turned itself into wins, as they have tallied 41, 44, and 35 points in trips to the University of Southern Maine, Worcester State University, and Williams over the past three weeks.  First year guard Valerie Luizzi had an impressive performance to pace Keene State, scoring 13 of her team's points while making 3-of-5 from three and both free throw attempts.  She added four rebounds and two steals.  Aryanna Murray finished with nine points and Rylee Burgess eight points (3-4 FG, 2-3 FT), eight rebounds, and two steals.  A young Owl group has begun to cut down on a turnover issue that plagued them early in the season, but overall in six games they have shot better than 40 percent twice.  Tonight, KSC was 5-for-20 from three (25 percent) and 6-for-28 from inside the arc (21 percent).  A game that Williams ran out to a 14-point advantage could have been even closer late, but the Owls cashed in on 8-of-17 from the charity stripe (Williams was 2-for-9).  KSC matched a season-low with 11 made field goals in the contest.

Williams was led by 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting (4-of-7 from three) from Ryann Taylor and 10 points (4-10 FG, 2-5 3-PT) from Mia Holtze.  Maddy Mandyck grabbed 17 rebounds, including six on the offensive end, as the Ephs controlled the boards 45-31 (33-22 on the defensive end), helping them win on a night when they scored eight fewer points than their previous season-low (done twice, once in a 56-40 win over Stevenson University).  It is their lowest offensive output since scoring 40 in a low-scoring nine-point win over Connecticut College at home last February 18.  Williams finished 10-15 a year ago, losing nine times by six points or less including against second-weekend NCAA teams Springfield College and Smith College.

It what might have felt like déjà vu from the start of the Owls' previous game against Rivier University when they misfired on their first 13 shots, KSC started 2-of-12 from the floor tonight and fell behind by 12 points after one quarter.  However, unlike Tuesday when they heated up in a substantial way to post a mostly comfortable win, that never came.  A three by Luizzi a little over four minutes in had the Owls on the board down 7-3, but Williams went on a 10-0 burst over the next 3:13 to rapidly take a 14-point advantage.  Burgess snapped the run with a layup at the 2:08 mark of the first quarter, and a layup from Samantha Lee and triple by Luizzi early in the second had the Owls within 19-10, but they managed only four free throws over the final seven minutes of the period and trailed 27-14 going into the locker room after Brooke Krivicas connected on a jumper in the final seconds.

The Ephs expanded their lead to a game-high 31-16 in the opening 2:10 of the second half, but KSC made it a 10-point game again on a jumper from Burgess and another three by Luizzi at the 6:27 mark.  Williams went back up 15 again over then next two minutes on a layup from Arianna Gerig and a triple from Holtz with 4:08 to go in the third.  They then scored only one point the rest of the way, and Murray canned two triples over the final 2:41 of the period including one in the final seconds to keep KSC within 37-27 entering the fourth.  Had the Owls heated up from the field, they might have been able to rally further, but it never came.  KSC was held to two made field goals on 15 tries in the fourth quarter, one that made it 41-29 when Luizzi scored at the 7:15 mark.  The other came in the form of a Burgess bucket and free throw that made it 45-33 with 3:18 left.  Ahead by 11, Taylor hit a three a little over 30 seconds later to put Williams up 48-34, and although those were the final points the home team managed, they were not threatened down the stretch.

Inside the Paint

• It was the first meeting between the two teams in 14 seasons.  KSC had won the last meeting between the programs 55-45 on January 6, 2009, overcoming a slow shooting start to win behind 18 point efforts from Nicole Simmler and Kristin Degou, both of whom were 1,000 point scorers.
• Luizzi has four multi-three games in her first six career games.
• The Owls are 0-4 away from Spaulding Gymnasium this season.

Up Next

• KSC will play in the consolation game of the tournament tomorrow (Saturday, December 3) against Bridgewater State University (6-2) at 1:00 p.m.  The Bears fell to 17th-ranked Babson College 78-56 in the evening's second game.  The Bears led 14-11 in the first, but trailed 39-26 at halftime and by 30 through three quarters.  It will be BSU's third game against an LEC opponent in the last four.  They lost at home to Rhode Island College 85-78 on November 22 before downing the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in the same place a week later.  The Owls' last meeting against Bridgewater came on New Year's Day in 2014, a 67-64 win in Tavernier, Fla.
• Williams plays Babson in the championship tomorrow at 3:00.  The Beavers are shooting 37 percent from three-point range as a team.  The two teams played in the same game last season, with Williams prevailing 63-56 while holding Babson to 30 percent shooting.