KEENE, N.H. –
Kelsey LaMay and
Ruby Dasaro led the way for the Keene State College women's basketball team in their 81-49 season-opening win over Colby-Sawyer College as LaMay opened her collegiate career with a game-high 23 points and
Ruby Dasaro nearly tallied a triple-double with 11 points, with nine rebounds, and nine assists in the victory for the Owls.
Records
- Keene State: 1-0
- Colby-Sawyer: 0-1
Highlights...coming soon
Postgame Interview (Coach Boucher)
Postgame Interview (Kelsey LaMay)
How it Happened
KSC jumped to a 19-12 lead after the opening 10 minutes of the contest as
Ruby Dasaro opened the scoring with her first basket on the Owls' opening offensive possession of the season. The Chargers answered back with five points over the next minute for what would up being their only lead of the contest, but that sparked a 12-0 Owls' run over the next 4:20 of action with four of the five KSC starters scoring a basket and
Amaya Spadola netting the first basket of her collegiate career for the Owls. After Colby-Sawyer scored on back-to-back possessions,
Kelsey LaMay converted an and-one before
Brynn Rautiola scored for KSC and Maggie Sasso responded with a three for CSC to cut the Owls' lead to 19-12 heading into the second quarter.
Both teams only made a basket apiece over the opening five minutes of the second quarter, but after Sasso hit another three with 4:37 left in the half, LaMay answered back with a three of her own and a after a block and rebound by Dasaro, she assisted LaMay on another basket to increase the Owls lead to nine with 3:44 remaining. Over the final 10 combined possessions of the opening half the two teams combined to score on six of them with both teams scoring seven apiece with LaMay hitting another jump shot and
Bella Schultz-Mitchell scoring the other five to bring her first half total to 11 of the Owls' 33 points in the 33-24 halftime lead.
After finishing her sophomore season tying for the third-most steals in a single season in program history, Dasaro continued to record steals as she recorded a pair of steals to open the second half and then scored on the other end, before assisting Schultz-Mitchell on a three to increase the Owls' lead to 16 1:13 into the third. Over the next four minutes the Chargers tried to cut into KSC's lead with a 8-2 run, but the Owls responded right back after their timeout resulted in a layup by Rautiola and
Kiley Bundy converting an and-one before
Sydney Cassidy added another layup a shortly after to increase the lead to 17. The rest of the third KSC outscored CSC 4-3 to increase the lead to 18 heading into the final 10 minutes of the contest.
The Owls dominated in the fourth quarter, doubling up CSC 28-14 to close the contest out. After both teams traded a pair of points in the opening two minutes of the fourth, with
Charlotte Buckley scoring her first basket of the game for the Owls, KSC went on a 12-4 scoring run over the following three minutes with all 12 points coming from threes as Bundy hit a pair to go with one from each Dasaro and LaMay. Dasaro picked up another pair of assists as LaMay added another five points and Schultz-Mitchell added another two herself to increase the lead to 30 for KSC with 3:36 remaining. The remainder of the contest KSC had the 7-5 scoring edge with LaMay hitting her fourth three of her collegiate debut, as the Owls cruised to the 81-49 victory.
Inside the Paint
- KSC improves to 6-2 in the all-time series between the two teams with the Owls winning the five most recent matchups.
- LaMay led the contest with 23 points, shooting 9-for-15 (.600) from the field and 4-for-9 (.444) from three in the win, while also recording four assists and three rebounds.
- Schultz-Mitchell recorded a new career-high 18 points in the opening game of her sophomore season on 8-for-17 (.471) shooting from the field.
- Dasaro led the contest with nine assists, while also recording a team-high nine boards across her 26 minutes of action.
- Anya Dziun tied for the team-high four offensive rebounds of the Owls' 17 offensive boards as a team, resulting in 19 second chance points to just two for CSC.
- KSC capitalized on the 30 Chargers' turnovers, resulting in 26 points, compared to CSC scoring nine points off 12 KSC turnovers.
- The Owls' defense was all over CSC with Bundy leading the way with five of the Owls' 19 steals on the day.
Up Next
Keene State hits the road for their next contest as the Owls take on New England College on Wednesday, November 11, at 2:00 PM.
Colby-Sawyer also plays their next game on Wednesday, November 11, as the Chargers host Amherst College at 5:30 PM.
