NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. – Octavio Brito finished with a 31-point, 11-rebound double-double to lead a whopping six Owls in double-figures as the nationally No. 23 ranked Keene State College men's basketball team concluded a stretch of playing every other day since last Tuesday with a 108-96 road win over the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in Little East Conference action Wednesday night at the Tripp Athletic Center.

The hot-shooting Owls (14-3, 8-0 LEC) connected on nearly 52 percent from the floor including upwards of 57 percent in the final 20 minutes as they beat the Corsairs (5-11, 2-6 LEC) for the sixth straight time.  KSC racked up a whopping 25 assists on 40 made field goals, their second highest total of the season behind their mark of 28 last Thursday in a blowout home win over Western Connecticut State University.

Keene State has now won eight straight, all by double-figures, and remains in first place in the LEC one game ahead of Rhode Island College, who the Owls beat at home last Saturday in the first of two meetings this season.  During the winning streak, KSC has made double-digit threes in seven of the eight games.  After a 17-for-41 effort tonight (42 percent), they remain an eye-popping 78-for-180 (43 percent) in their last five games.  Tonight, Spencer Aronson and Mitch Shettles were both 4-for-8 on long-range attempts while Brito was 3-for-7.  Ryan Blakey was 2-for-3 and Liam Johnston 2-for-4 off the bench.

KSC opened a quick 10-4 lead less than three minutes in as Mason Jean Baptiste scored six straight points, but UMass-Dartmouth answered with 10 straight points of their own to go up four at the 15:22 mark.  The Owls warmed up as the game went on, taking a 28-25 lead on Shettles' first three and a layup by Wesley Odiase on consecutive possessions halfway through the half.  KSC stretched their lead to 11 (43-32) following a Brito steal and Aronson triple with 4:59 to go until the break, but each team had a run left before the half was over.  UMass-Dartmouth got within 48-46 thanks to a 14-5 run that included nine points from Josh Lopes only to see Brito hit a three and Odiase score inside with 17 seconds left in the half as the Owls restored a 53-46 halftime lead.

The same thing happened in reverse to begin the second half, with Odiase putting back an offensive rebound of his own miss that was blocked and Brito following with a three as KSC went up 12, and the Owls were in command for most of the final 20 minutes.  Aronson and Shettles combined to go 5-for-8 from deep in the period, with the first trey by Aronson pushing the lead to 61-48 with 18:21 left and the third making it 70-54 less than three minutes later.  In all, his three makes from three came within 2:46 of each other and helped push the Owls' lead to a game-high 16 points.

UMass-Dartmouth, despite a 2-5 record on their home court, refused to go away, hitting back with a 14-3 burst to get within five with 12:39 to go, but they never came close to slowing KSC's proficient offense, as the visitors got a layup from Siow and two triples by Shettles in 74 seconds to go back up 81-68.  The Corsairs got within single-digits one more time at 97-89 with 3:53 to go, but a Brito old-fashioned three-point play put the Owls at 100 and Jean Baptiste's layup at the 2:36 mark made it 102-89.  KSC used an 11-4 surge after the home team got within eight to lock up their eighth straight win before Danny Reyes made a three with seconds left to set the final margin.

The Owls' eight wins during their streak have come by an average of 22.8 points per game.  They have now won at least eight straight in three consecutive seasons.  Last year, they posted a 12-game winning streak and two years ago they posted streaks of 15 in a row and 13 in a row en route to a program-record 28 wins.

KSC's streak of six in a row over UMass-Dartmouth, which began by winning the 2022 LEC championship game on the road 71-69 in overtime, matches the longest streak in series history.  They have won every matchup by double-digits and have scored 99 or more points four times.  The Owls swept last year's games 104-76 in Keene and 99-78 in Dartmouth.  After dropping 12 of their first 16 games at the Tripp Athletic Center, the Owls are 10-7 at the venue since 2012 and have won five of the last seven on the road against UMD.

"Credit to UMass-Dartmouth…they really took it to our defense and generated good shots," said KSC head coach Steve Enright.  "We need to defend better in transition than we did tonight.  Against their zone, I thought we did a decent job attacking it with 25 assists on 40 made field goals, and we were successful offensive rebounding and creating extra possessions."

KSC outrebounded UMD 44-30 and grabbed 18 offensive rebounds.

Brito stuffed the statsheet, recording his double-double on 12-of-19 shooting including 3-of-7 from beyond the arc and 4-of-5 at the foul line.  He added three assists and three steals.  Jean Baptiste added 13 points while Aronson had 12 points (4-8 3-PT) and three assists, Shettles 12 points (4-8 3-PT) and two rebounds, Odiase 11 points (5-10 FG), seven rebounds, and two assists, and Blakey 10 points (4-6 FG, 2-3 3-PT).  Siow finished with seven assists and Blakey four.  Jean Baptiste also had four as KSC had six finish with multiple helpers. 

Siow and Brito are each approaching point milestones, with the former needing 20 to reach 1,000 for his career and the latter needing 54 to become the third player in program history to eclipse 2,000 career points.

UMass-Dartmouth also had six in double-figures paced by Isaac Percy's 20-point effort on 7-of-13 shooting including 2-of-4 from beyond the arc.  Josh Lopes (7-17 FG, 1-4 3-PT) added 19 points and John Marcille 16 (6-10 FG, 3-6 3-PT), but the Corsairs came up short despite shooting nearly 49 percent overall, making 9-of-21 from three, and all 19 of their free throw attempts.  As of now halfway through the league schedule, UMD would not make the league tournament, but is just one game behind four teams that are 3-5 – one of which that occupies fourth place.

KSC returns home to begin the back half of the league schedule by hosting the University of Southern Maine (7-10, 3-5 LEC) on Saturday (January 25) at 3:00 p.m.  The Owls torched the Huskies 116-81 in the first meeting.  UMass-Dartmouth has a league bye and hosts Bates College (8-8, 1-3 NESCAC) on the same day at 1:00 p.m.