DANBURY, Conn. – A common phrase uttered by many sports fans and pundits is defense wins championships.  Should that be the case, head coach Steve Enright and the Keene State College men's basketball team may like where they are heading.  Playing shorthanded and without some key offensive threats, the Owls held Western Connecticut State University to a season-worst 30 percent shooting effort from the floor and dominated the glass 49-29 as they posted a 63-59 Little East Conference win over the Wolves at the Feldman Arena Wednesday evening, snapping the home team's eight-game winning streak.

KSC (7-8, 4-3 LEC) trailed by five early in the first half but led by as many as seven (28-21) in the opening half before carrying a 30-25 advantage into the locker room.  The Owls' lead ballooned to as many as 11 (36-25) after consecutive treys to open the second half by Jordan Cooper and Isaac Ogutuga, but it ultimately ended up being key plays late that locked down an important road victory over WestConn (11-5, 4-3 LEC), who had won their last three games at first place University of Massachusetts-Boston (98-70), home against Rhode Island College (91-68) and at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (98-86) by a combined 63 points.

They never came close to any of those numbers on this night in the second-lowest scoring head-to-head meeting in series history and were consistently bothered by the interior presence of 6-foot-10 Denis Wainaina, who finished with 10 rebounds and five blocks to go along with five points.  The sophomore big man also helped KSC come up with one of their biggest defensive stops on a night where there were many, bothering Marcel Henry's shot with 10 seconds left with KSC up two (61-59).  Cooper came in to grab the board and called a timeout.  The Owls then inbounded to Ryan Blakey, who made two free throws with 4.3 seconds left to make it 63-59 and essentially salt the game away, improving KSC to 17-11 all-time at the Feldman Arena.  Leo Chaikin also grabbed nine boards and Cooper nine to go along with his team-best 20 points on 8-of-18 shooting.  Cooper extended his streak of scoring 20 or more points to seven straight while he also added two assists and three steals, finishing with a team-best plus-10 rating.

Many others also factored into the road victory, including Liam Johnston, who hit a huge triple with 2:35 to go off a pass from Cooper following an impressive offensive possession to give KSC the lead for good at 60-57.  The Owls forced a turnover on the Wolves' next trip but returned the favor to allow Jahlyl Morgan a layup to make it a one-point game with 1:30 left.  Kareem Porter Jr. then grabbed a big offensive rebound with a little over a minute to go and was fouled, making one of two at the foul line to make it a 61-59 game.  Blakey and Johnston then added to the list of big moments they teamed up to poke the ball away from Nick Boyce and deny him a drive to the paint before he could even get started.  Ahead by two as the clock ticked under 30 seconds, a hectic offensive possession by KSC resulted in WestConn getting another chance down two – but the Owls' defense again came through thanks to Wainaina's aforementioned defense on Henry, the Wolves' leading scorer who was held seven points under his average and had 82 points (16.4 per game) on 35-for-60 shooting in his team's previous five games entering tonight.  Henry finished with only nine points on 3-of-9 shooting tonight.

An early 8-0 run by the Wolves turned a 5-2 deficit into a 10-5 lead at the 13:57 mark of the opening half, but KSC's stifling defense was very apparent early, as WestConn scored just six points over nearly the next 10 minutes as the Owls responded to grab a three-point edge (19-16) with 4:49 to go until halftime.  The home team tied it with three free throws, but Cooper had eight points down the stretch including a bucket with 21 seconds on the clock that made it 30-24.  KSC then prevented any momentum for the Wolves to start the second half, as they saw their initial 11-point lead after the two initial threes trimmed to five, but Blakey canned a triple with 14:13 to go for a 41-32 Owls lead.  In one of the only real bursts of offense for WestConn, they reeled off a 12-0 burst over the next three minutes to take a three-point lead (44-41) and led by four (47-43) at the 9:15 mark, but KSC held them to just 12 points the rest of the way.

Perhaps not indicated by the scoreboard and clouded by 31 turnovers, the Owls engineered an impressive second half offensively when they got shots up, shooting 12-for-21 (57 percent) from the floor including 5-of-10 from three.  Their long-range shooting was also a big key in the game, finishing 8-for-18 overall (44 percent) while limiting WCSU to just a 3-for-12 effort.  Six different Owls made a triple, including two apiece for Johnston and Ogutuga.

Although Cooper was the only KSC player in double-digits for scoring, nine other Owls got on the scoresheet, including seven points (2-2 FG, 1-1 3-PT, 2-3 FT) from Blakey.  Johnston, making a start as KSC held out Mitch Shettles with an ailment, was 2-for-5 from deep for six points but also had five assists and was credited with two steals.  Chaikin had nine rebounds, six assists, and three steals despite just four points.  Allyn Wright canned a pair of shots including a triple, both coming with less than eight minutes to go including the three that put KSC up 49-48 at the 6:30 mark.

"It was a tough, physical game that came down to the end where some of our guys made some big plays (steals) and hit some crucial free throws," said Owls head coach Steve Enright.  "Defensively, we have been preaching how to win games even if we are falling short on the offensive end.  We have ben in a bunch of close games and just have not been able to find a way to win yet, but we were able to tonight.  I thought Liam Johnston was huge and guided us through from start to finish."

The Owls are holding their opponents to just 41.6 percent shooting from the floor on the season including a 31.7 percent mark from three.  They have held seven opponents under 40 percent shooting, including each of their past three.  Only one opponent in the last seven games has shot better than 41.9 percent against KSC.  Individually over the past eight contests, Wainaina has swatted 36 shots.  His 51 blocks on the season are just one away from already being a top-ten mark on KSC's all-time single-season list.

Elijah Guillaume led WestConn with 11 points (2-5 FG, 7-8 FT) in 16 minutes while Boyce had an inefficient 10 points (2-8 FG, 6-12 FT).

The Owls, who have met the Wolves in each of the last three Little East Conference tournament championship games as a part of their run of four consecutive titles, have won 10 of the last 12 meetings in the series and are 44-21 against WestConn overall. 

The win moves the Owls into fourth and ahead of the Wolves currently due to the tiebreaker and still in a position to move up even further as the second half of the league slate looms.  KSC is two games behind UMass-Boston in the loss column, who stayed in first today thanks to an 80-55 rout of Plymouth State University at home, a game the Beacons led 38-13 in the first half.  The Owls will have the league bye on Saturday before traveling to Middlebury College (6-7, 0-2 NESCAC) for a non-conference matchup on Martin Luther King Day (Monday, January 19) at 7:00 p.m.  KSC returns home to Spaulding for an LEC matchup with UMass-Dartmouth (8-7, 2-4 LEC) next Wednesday (January 21) at 7:30 p.m. to close their first trip around the league.