KEENE, N.H. – Fifth year center Jeff Hunter (Hudson, Mass.) moved up to fifth on the Keene State College men's basketball scoring list and second on the all-time rebounds list after posting his 30th double-double in the last 35 games dating to last season as the Owls had little trouble dispatching the University of Southern Maine 94-80 in the Little East Conference opener for both teams at Spaulding Gymnasium Saturday afternoon.

Records

• No. 7 Keene State:  6-1, 1-0 LEC
• Southern Maine:  4-3, 0-1 LEC

How It Happened
Playing at home for the first time in three weeks, the Owls raced out to an 8-2 lead in the opening 1:29 and kept pushing from there as they won for the fifth straight time.  Leading 24-18 with 10:30 to go in the first half, Spencer Aronson and Alonzo Linton acted as a big spark off the bench, drilling three treys in 52 seconds to rapidly push the lead to 15, and it mostly kept growing from there.  KSC carried a 53-35 advantage to the locker room, and then burst out of the gates with a pair of Hunter buckets including a dunk in the opening minute-plus of the second half as part of an 11-2 surge that gave them a 64-37 lead with 17:17 to go.  A minute later, Tahmeen Dupree and Octavio Brito connected from distance on consecutive possessions to push the lead to 30, and KSC cruised, shooting 53 percent as a team and 12-for-27 from three-point range.  Southern Maine got hot late to trim the deficit to as little as 14 (with 30 seconds left) and wound up shooting 51 percent themselves (58 percent in the final 20 minutes) while turning the ball over just eight times, but was decimated on the glass 43-18.

Brito and Hunter were dominant on the afternoon, with neither playing more than 28 minutes.  They combined for 45 points on 18-for-29 shooting with Brito making 5-of-9 from long range, grabbed a combined 23 rebounds, and had eight of KSC's 15 assists as a team.  Brito had five helpers without a turnover, and Hunter had a pair of blocks.  Aronson was the Owls' third double-figure scorer, chipping in 11 (4-9 FG, 3-8 3-PT) and two assists.  Mason Jean Baptiste made 2-of-3 from deep and scored six points in only 16 minutes, as with a comfortable lead in the second half, KSC coach David Hastings likely tried to limit minutes as his team began a stretch of four games in seven days prior to the holiday break.

Home dominance for the Owls today was not new, particularly coming off a 16-0 conference mark a season ago, one that included a 93-68 victory over the Huskies, who eventually finished third in the league standings but were upset in the quarterfinals by No. 6 seed University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.  USM never led that day and trailed 56-31 at halftime – and never led on this day either, as KSC broke away from a 16-13 game with a 17-5 burst that included the aforementioned three-point shooting barrage from Aronson and Linton.  Brito also drained a pair during that surge, and Mike Carothers sliced and diced USM's defense twice for layups at the rim to make it 24-16 with 11:36 left in the opening half.  After trailing by 18 (44-26), the Huskies did rattle off seven in a row (all from Tommy Whelan) to get within 11, but that is as close as they would get the rest of the afternoon.  A putback bucket by Brito after an offensive board (one of KSC's 14 while USM had only one on the afternoon) with 1:17 to go until the break made it 49-33, and Hunter's dunk as the clock ticked under five seconds provided an exclamation point and pushed the lead back to 18 again.

Less than three minutes out of the locker room, the Owls were humming and quickly pushed the lead to 27 (64-37), with Brito connecting from distance on one trip and then putting home another second-chance basket on the next.  Their largest lead of 70-40 came at the 15:40 mark, and Wesley Odiase's offensive board and putback with 12:14 to go made it 74-46.  A 19-6 run by Southern Maine over the next four minutes helped cut the deficit in half, but buckets from Hunter and Ryan Brooks (his first career points in his first collegiate appearance), and a triple from Aronson in a 1:22 span made it 87-65 with 4:09 left.  Brito's flush with 2:39 on the clock made it 92-71 before the Huskies closed on a 9-2 run to set the final margin.

Whelan finished with a team-best 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting for Southern Maine.  Chance Dixon (7-15 FG) and Cody Hawes (7-16 FG) each scored 15, with Hawes also adding six assists, but the duo was held to just 2-of-10 from three-point range.

Brito was 9-for-16 from the floor for KSC and 5-for-9 from three.  Hunter made 9-of-13 shots from the field, 4-of-5 from the foul line, grabbed 11 boards (three offensive), and added three assists and two blocks.

Inside the Paint

• Hunter moved past Dave Stantial and into fifth on the Owls' all-time career scoring list with 1,533 career points.  Tyler Kathan (1,799 career points) is in fourth.  He also moved past Al Hicks and into second on the all-time KSC rebounding list with 1,082.  Dave Terry is the all-time leading rebounder with 1,252.  Hunter is also just two blocks away from surpassing Marcus Debro and moving into second on that list.
• Aronson is 17-for-36 (47 percent) from three-point range over the last five games after misfiring on his first nine attempts in the opening two games.  As a team, KSC has made double-digit threes in five of the seven contests including a 12-for-27 (44 percent) mark today.  They are outshooting their opponents from three on the season by nearly 10 percent.
• The officials whistled just 13 total fouls in a quick-moving game (nine on USM, four on KSC).  There were just 13 total free throws.
• Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field; KSC at 52.1 percent and USM at 50.7 percent.
• KSC has won 45 of 51 all-time meetings in the series.

Up Next

• Keene State hosts Westfield State University (4-2) in a non-conference contest on Monday night (December 4) at 7:00 p.m.  The Owls lost 89-77 at Clark University today, but their only other loss came at Division I Dartmouth College (79-61) on November 15.  KSC won last year's meeting 86-71 on the road.
• USM, which has lost three straight, is home against Rhode Island College (7-2, 1-0 LEC) on Wednesday, December 6 at 7:30 p.m.