KEENE, N.H. – If you couldn't call it a Little East Conference dynasty before – you can now - as the Keene State College men's basketball team has done something that no other program had accomplished in league history.  Sophomore Wesley Odiase narrowly missed a double-double by compiling 20 points and nine rebounds while LEC tournament Most Outstanding Player Octavio Brito recorded double-doubles in each game of the tournament as the Owls etched their name in the record books on Saturday afternoon at Spaulding Gymnasium, dominating Western Connecticut State University 80-67 to win their unprecedented fourth consecutive championship.

HIGHLIGHTS
POSTGAME INTERVIEW (COACH ENRIGHT)
POSTGAME INTERVIEW (WESLEY ODIASE/OCTAVIO BRITO)

It was more history for the Owls (22-5) and their group of four seniors, who completed four dominant years in the LEC with a 66-7 record including a 9-0 mark in postseason tournament games.

Today's game was controlled by Keene State throughout, as the Owls held WCSU to just 22 percent (6-for-27) shooting in the opening half while opening an 18-4 lead nine minutes in and a 37-20 edge at the break.  Their advantage was never remotely threatened in the second half, as they opened with a 12-6 burst to make it 49-26 with 14:51 to go and widened the gap to 31 (70-39) with 8:24 left on a trey by Brito. 

WestConn's lone lead of the game came on an opening basket by Jourdan Belcher 21 seconds in, after which KSC responded with 10 straight points in the next 4:37 capped by layups at the rim from  Nate Siow and Brito.  Bench sparkplug Ryan Blakey scored inside and then made a triple on consecutive possessions to make it 18-4 less than nine minutes in, and the Owls were well on their way from there despite shooting only 39 percent in the opening 20 minutes.  KSC outrebounded the Wolves, who compiled 17 offensive rebounds in their semifinal win over national leading rebounder Ousmane Kourouma and Rhode Island College, 23-15 in the first half and 39-34 overall.  The Wolves wound up trailing by double-digits for the final 31:38 just one game after KSC jumped on the University of Massachusetts-Boston by 12 in barely over five minutes and led that game by double-figures the rest of the way.  In total, the Owls punctuated their dominance in the LEC by maintaining a lead of 10 or more for 66:12 of a possible 80 minutes.

Despite not making a field goal for nearly six minutes of action late in the first half, KSC maintained a comfortable advantage thanks to their defensive effort and the foul line.  Blakey made three at the stripe after being fouled shooting from deep at the 5:05 mark, making it 29-13, and Shettles went 3-of-4 with a little over two minutes to go to keep the advantage at 16.  Siow snapped the drought and gave the home team a half-high 19-point advantage (37-18) with 14 seconds to go before Keeshawn Jones scored in the final seconds.  It was nonetheless still WestConn's lowest scoring half of the season.

Keene State did not relent early in the second half, turning into an even larger runaway thanks to Odiase, as the sophomore racked up 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting including 2-of-2 from deep in the opening 11 minutes.  He scored twice inside early, then displayed his long-range ability by canning a trey beyond the top of the key for a 54-30 lead with 13 minutes to go.  He energized the crowd on the Owls' next possession by freezing Nick Boyce by the perimeter before blowing past him for a one-handed flush.  Odiase's second triple pushed his team's lead to 61-34 with 11:09 to go, and Brito joined in on the three-point fun two minutes later by burying another to give KSC its biggest lead despite shooting just 5-of-18 overall from three as a team.  The Owls are now 18-1 when making 10 or more threes and now 4-4 when they do not – though today they beat the Wolves at the own game by outscoring them 38-30 in the paint in addition to outrebounding them.

Down 27 with 6:15 left following a Spencer Aronson three and 20 (77-57) with 3:20 left after a Siow three-point play, WestConn trimmed their deficit to 14 with two minutes to go, but it was far too little and far too late as another celebration at Spaulding Gymnasium could commence.

KSC put four in double-figures, paced by Odiase's 20 points (7-11 FG, 2-2 3-PT, 4-4 FT) and nine rebounds.  Siow (6-10 FG, 7 reb., 4 asst., 1 TO) and Blakey (4-7 FG, 1-1 3-PT, 5-5 FT) each added 14 points, while Brito had 13 points and 10 boards.

The Wolves, who had won 10 straight since a 100-62 loss in Keene on January 16, got 15 points on 7-of-15 shooting from Cameron Gallon.  Tayejon Lynch (2-9 FG, 6-6 FT) and Boyce (2-6 FG, 7-9 FT) each added 11, but WestConn was held to their fifth-worst field goal percentage mark (38.1) of the season.  Two of their five worst shooting performances came against KSC, whom they are 2-9 against since the start of the 2021-2022 season and have lost 16 of the last 20 matchups.

Keene State's last three conference championships have come with three different coaches, with first-year leader Steve Enright capturing the crown in his initial season with the Owls in which KSC outscored league opponents by a combined 340 points (18.9 per game) in 18 games (including the tournament).  Fifteen of their wins were by double-digits.

Brito joins Alphonse Michalski (2004), Tom Doyle (2015), Nate Stitchell (2016), Ty Nichols (2019), James Anozie (2022), and Jeff Hunter (2023, 2024) as winners of the Little East tournament Most Outstanding Player award, compiling 26 points and 25 rebounds in the two victories.  He enters the NCAA tournament with 2,166 career points, behind only Ty Nichols' 2,316 in program history.

The Owls ensure their 10th appearance in the NCAA tournament, with eight coming since 2015.  The selections and bracket to be announced on Monday (March 3) on ncaa.com at 12:00 p.m.