KEENE, N.H. – Liam Johnston, Mitch Shettles, Ryan Blakey, and Leo Chaikin combined for 31 points and seven three-pointers as the re-ranked No. 23 Keene State College men's basketball team continued their barrage from long distance and extended their winning streak to seven games with an 85-67 win over Middlebury College on Monday night at Spaulding Gymnasium.

Highlights...coming soon
Postgame Interview (Coach Enright)
Postgame Interview (Mitch Shettles)

The Owls (13-3), after jumping back into the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll at No. 23 earlier in the day, led by six (39-33) at halftime before steadily pulling away partway through the second half.  Leading 49-45 against a pesky Panthers squad that prevented KSC from going on any long runs initially, it was the bench that sparked the game-deciding surge, as four points from Chaikin and three by Shettles ran off a key 7-0 surge that changed the four-point lead to 56-45 with 11:12 left.  Middlebury never got closer than seven again, and Johnston drained two more triples in the ensuing three minutes to push the lead to 72-55 with 6:27 to go.  In fact, KSC's reserve group accounted for 23 consecutive points from the 12:22 mark to the 5:34 mark when Octavio Brito made a pair of free throws that made it 74-57.

Mason Jean Baptiste joined the three-point fun a minute later and Brito followed with a bucket at the rim to push the lead to 20 (79-59), and the Owls led by as many as 23 down the stretch to post their second straight win in the series and end a run of six consecutive wins by the road team.  Middlebury, then-No. 11, won in their last visit to Spaulding Gymnasium two years ago when they upset then-No. 4 KSC 86-82 after erasing an 83-78 deficit in the final minute-plus before the Owls routed the Panthers 84-66 in Vermont last season.

Middlebury (8-9) has lost five straight and is 0-6 against nationally-ranked teams this season.  Although they limited KSC to under 40 percent shooting (39.7) overall, the Owls outscored them 27-0 from three-point range in the second half.  Johnston and Jean Baptiste combined to go 6-for-9 from deep in the final 20 minutes, each making three triples.

Keene State finished with 41 points from their reserves (Middlebury 15), nearly half of their point total, and 15-of-37 from three-point range.  They have made double-digits from beyond the arc in six consecutive games and are an eye-popping 61-for-139 (44 percent) in their last four games, a stretch in which have outscored their opponents by an aggregate 385-277 score (27 points per game).

Story will be updated.