KEENE, N.H. –
Jordan Cooper was 11-for-11 from the foul line to score a team-best 21 points,
Wesley Odiase added a 17-point, 11-rebound double-double, and
Gabe Marquis added 16 points in 19 minutes off the bench as the Keene State College men's basketball team opened their 2026-2027 campaign with a mostly comfortable 92-73 victory over Lehman College on Saturday afternoon at Spaulding Gymnasium.
The Owls (1-0) took a huge lead early, going up 10-2 with eight straight points in less than two minutes. A three-point play by Cooper at the 16:32 mark made it 13-4, and KSC kept pouring it on, with a dunk by Odiase a little over a minute later pushing the lead into double-digits (17-6).
Kyren Smith, a transfer from Bridgewater College (Va.) just like Cooper, followed with his first points as an Owl to make it 20-6, and Marquis then ran off eight in a row including draining two triples to help push the lead to 32-8 just barely over ten minutes in. All told, KSC shot 65 percent (11-for-17) in the game-breaking run right off the bat and held Lehman (0-1) to just 4-of-18 shooting while forcing five turnovers.
The Lightning, defending CUNYAC champions who lost at Wesleyan University by 10 points in the first round of the NCAA tournament a season ago, did battle back, trimming their deficit to 41-32 as they made seven of their next 11 shots including 2-for-2 from three and 8-of-13 at the foul line. In that six-minute stretch, the Owls made just one shot and turned the ball over four times.
But KSC scored six straight including a Cooper triple to restore a 15-point lead (47-32) with 1:18 left in the first half, and that more or less told the story of the rest of the game – a game that featured a combined 48 fouls and 70 free throw attempts.
The lead ballooned to 21 again 3:34 into the second half as a layup from
Allyn Wright and two Smith free throws made it 58-37, and Marquis drained one of his four threes on five attempts a little over a minute later to put the Owls in front 63-41.
Lehman made one final push, scoring 13 of the next 15 points to get back within 11 at 65-54 with 11:13 to go, but Cooper drained a triple and Marquis went to the basket for a layup to make it 70-54 with 9:35 left. Leading by 16 with a little less than six minutes to go, KSC firmly put the game to bed after Marquis hit another triple and
Kyle Benjamin drove to the hoop for a layup to make it 82-61. The Owls nearly matched their very early game-high lead late, going up as many as 23 in the second half late.
KSC racked up 31 fastbreak points and was plus-26 in that category. The Owls shot 42 percent and made 8-of-25 from three while Lehman made 7-of-18 (39 percent) from deep but was held to just 35.5 percent shooting overall.
The Owls were 28-of-36 at the foul line, paced by Cooper's 11-for-11, while Lehman was 22-for-34.
Kesean Tracey led Lehman with 24 points on 7-of-12 shooting including 9-of-14 at the free throw line while also adding three steals, though he did turn the ball over five times.
The game marked the Owl debuts for Smith, Benjamin, and
Jonathan Ocasio.
KSC is back in action next Saturday (November 14) on the road against Western New England University (1-0) at 1:00 p.m. The Golden Bears downed Brandeis University 67-61 in their season-opener today.
