WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The Keene State College women's basketball team led for 32 minutes on Tuesday night and did not trail at any point over the first three quarters or the opening 7:59 in the fourth despite a freezing cold offensive performance.  However, Eastern Connecticut State University took their first lead with two minutes left and wound up scoring the game's final 12 points to turn a seven-point deficit with 3:52 left into a 43-38 win in the Little East Conference tournament quarterfinals at Geissler Gymnasium, sending KSC to a bitter season-ending loss.

Records

• Keene State:  11-14
• Eastern Connecticut:  11-15

How It Happened
In two regular season meetings between the teams, the Owls had no problem scoring against the Warriors, including a 47 percent shooting performance and 10-of-20 effort from three-point range in the most recent meeting, a 68-37 blowout for KSC that was rarely close on the same court 13 days ago (the Owls also scored 59 points in a three-point home loss in early January).  However, Keene State picked an unfortunate time for their second-lowest field goal percentage in a game this season, shooting just 21 percent while matching a season-low with 12 field goals.  Because of it, they end their campaign with four consecutive losses since beating ECSU on February 7, a skid that helped send them on the road for a quarterfinal in the first place.  The Warriors entered the night the No. 4 seed in the conference (and KSC No. 5), but had not been winning to earn that mark, losing three of their last four including at home to Plymouth State University (63-55) in their last effort after being blasted by Rhode Island College before that.  It seemed they were tumbling to another defeat after an 8-for-41 effort from the floor in the opening 30 minutes (19.5 percent), but the Warriors then connected on 6-of-14 in the final 10 minutes and outscored KSC, who made only one field goal in the fourth, 14-5 to steal a win.

ECSU got within two with 8:01 left after a jumper from Taylor Salato, but it appeared the Owls were well in command after that, as they scored the next five points and went up 38-31 with 3:52 left on a basket and free throw from Samantha Lee.  The Warriors were scoreless for nearly five minutes, and at that point were 9-for-49 from the floor.  Keene State likely needed one – maybe two – more baskets to punch their ticket to the semifinals.  They never came.  Instead, out of the blue, Eastern Connecticut made five of their final six shots including scoring on four consecutive possessions to surge in front 39-38 with two minutes left on another basket by Salato.  The Owls had missed a layup before that would have put them ahead by nine with 3:15 left, and then committed two turnovers and missed a three while allowing eight consecutive points.  They had a chance with 1:43 to go to retake the lead, but missed a pair of free throws.  One of ECSU's rare misses at the very end came next, but KSC was blocked on the other end and Kya Mayo followed with a jumper after a timeout to make it a 41-38 lead for the home team.  A miss and two free throws later put the Warriors up five with six seconds to go, sealing the Owls' fate.  KSC scored just 13 points in the second half and was 0-for-7 from deep.  They made just three field goals.

The Owls led by two at the break (25-23), but had a chance for a bigger lead as a triple from Brynn Rautiola at the 7:23 mark made it 16-11 and a jumper from Valerie Luizzi two minutes later made it 19-13.  KSC canned two more triples, one from Katie Sullivan and another from Luizzi to forge ahead by seven – seemingly a big lead in a game where neither team sniffed 50 points – but Eastern scored the last five points of the half to stay in the game.  Nine of their 23 points in the opening 20 minutes came at the foul line, while Keene State was 5-for-12 from three-point range.

ECSU tied the game at 25 barely over a minute into the second half, but Luizzi answered with a jumper on the next trip and the Owls restored a six-point lead (33-27) with a minute left in the third quarter as Avery Stewart and Lee combined to go 3-for-4 at the line.  However, they never pulled away enough, as the Warriors hung around despite making two total field goals from the 5:35 mark of the third quarter to the 3:09 mark of the fourth.

Neither team scored until nearly four minutes into the game, but the Owls wound up scoring six of the first eight points to lead by four (6-2) with 2:39 left in the opening quarter.  Luizzi had seven of KSC's 10 points in the period as they led 10-9 after one, and she overall had 12 on efficient shooting (5-9 FG, 2-3 3-PT) and six rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.  Rautiola also made a pair of threes and had seven points.  It seemed to be following a similar script to the first time around, but the second half told a different story.

Salato, who was 0-for-7 in the first half and scored five points on six free throw attempts, finished with 17 points (4-17 FG, 9-10 FT) and 16 rebounds to pace ECSU.  Mayo had 10 points, shooting 5-for-14 from the floor, and six rebounds.  Nevaeh Clark added nine points and six boards as the Warriors had a 47-40 rebounding advantage.

Luizzi finished with 14 points and eight rebounds for KSC, while Rautiola had 10 points and five boards.  Lilly Krysinski added 11 rebounds and Stewart four assists.

Keene State last made it beyond the LEC quarterfinals in the Covid-altered 2021 season, beating the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth 63-60 on the road in the semifinals before falling at Rhode Island College 50-38 in the championship.

Inside the Paint

• Rautiola needed 12 points to set the new Keene State women's basketball single-season scoring record, but will instead finish second on that list with 491 points behind Patty Rauch who had 492 in 1986-1987.  Even still, the Owl standout first year guard is on pace for just shy of 2,000 career points (1,964), which would far and away be leading scorer in program history.  Her 85.8 percent free throw mark is the best in a single-season in program history.
• KSC finished 6-9 away from Spaulding Gymnasium this season (including neutral games) and with four straight losses after moving above .500 at 11-10.  The Owls shot 33.5 percent as a team overall.
• Keene State dropped to 3-6 against the Warriors in the LEC tournament.  Their nine postseason meetings is the second-most for the Owls against any league foe (University of Southern Maine, 11).

Up Next

• The Owls' season is over.  Head coach Keith Boucher and his staff figure to look to add talent to an underclass duo of Rautiola, who led the conference in points per game in the regular season, and Luizzi, who was eighth, and return injured players to help form a deeper rotation.
• Eastern Connecticut travels to face unbeaten and nationally-No. 3 ranked Rhode Island College (25-0, 16-0 LEC) on Thursday night (February 22) at 6:00 p.m.  The Anchorwomen destroyed the Warriors by a combined 105 points in two regular season meetings, with ECSU scoring 35 and 30 points.