NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. – The Keene State College men's basketball team missed 16 of their final 17 three-point attempts and 15 of their final 16 shots overall as they stumbled to an 88-71 loss to the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in Little East Conference action Wednesday night at the Tripp Athletic Center.

The defeat damaged the Owls' (12-10, 8-5 LEC) hopes for a bye to the semifinals and a home game heading into an important Saturday home game against Western Connecticut State University.  KSC now cannot pass the Wolves in the standings with a win Saturday, and must now be two games better than WestConn over the final three regular season contests.  Next week, the Owls travel to Eastern Connecticut State University before hosting Rhode Island College, who has lost four games in a row.  WestConn will travel to face RIC before closing the season at home against UMass-Dartmouth.

KSC battled ice-cold shooting and foul trouble all night, as Jordan Cooper was limited to just 18:56 of action thanks to four fouls.  He finished with 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting and made all six of his free throws.  Cooper helped the Owls to a 10-5 lead early but picked up his second foul just 6:12 into the game with KSC up 13-8.  He did not return until the start of the second half and immediately scored five points to tie the game at 42, but picked up his third foul with 13:15 left with the Owls down six.  It was still a six-point game (63-57) with 9:50 left when he picked up his fourth, and he did not return until less than five minutes to go with KSC was down 73-64.  It never got better for the Owls from there, who were out of sorts offensively all night as they shot a season-worst 30.6 percent from the field and made just 8-of-34 (23.5 percent) from three-point range.  Over the final 18:48 of the game, KSC shot just 23.5 percent from the field as they were outscored 46-29.  Danny Reyes and Camden DiChiara scored a combined 24 points in that span.  It was Nic Boyd who hit the first of the dagger shots for the Corsairs, giving the home team a 77-64 lead with 4:02 left after making a triple.  KSC, after leading by 16 in the first half before having to erase an eight-point deficit with six minutes left in the first meeting between the two teams, got within 10 (79-69) with 3:07 left, but DiChiara made a pair of threes following offensive rebounds over the next minute and a half to push UMD's lead to 16.

The Owls continue a season that has been up-and-down throughout, which now includes a road win over the University of Southern Maine that is their only loss and over WestConn (10-3 at home) – but also losses at seventh-place UMass-Dartmouth and eighth-place Plymouth State University.  For UMass-Dartmouth (12-10, 6-7 LEC), they improved to just 3-4 at home in league play with the other two wins at the Tripp Athletic Center against the bottom two teams in the standings.

KSC trailed 42-37 at the break following a first half in which neither team led by more than six points.  It seemed the final 20 minutes was headed in a similar direction when the Owls scored the first five of the second half and then trimmed a nine-point deficit to 66-62 on Mitch Shettles' three with 9:10 to go, but KSC scored just nine points over the rest of the game as their eight-game winning streak against UMass-Dartmouth was snapped.

"It was a tough result for us and I am disappointed in our output tonight," said Owls head coach Steve Enright.  "It was difficult for us with Cooper on the bench for long stretches with foul trouble.  I thought we were inefficient offensively and missed a ton of open shots and did not execute well enough defensively to make up for our poor offensive performance.  It is important we turn the page very quickly and throw a better punch against WestConn Saturday."

The Corsairs shot just 41.1 percent overall in the game, but were 15-for-30 in the final 18:48 while the Owls turned ice cold, with KSC's off-kilter offense unable to take advantage of nine UMD turnovers in that span.

Leo Chaikin finished with 14 points (3-8 FG, 8-9 FT), eight rebounds, and three assists for KSC, while Mitch Shettles had 13 points (4-9 FG, 3-7 3-PT, 2-2 FT) and three boards off the bench.

Boyd (21 pts.), Reyes (21 pts.), and DiChiara (20 pts.) all eclipsed 20 points for UMass-Dartmouth, who also had a 54-44 edge on the glass including 21 offensive rebounds.  Camden Dunbury had 13 points (5-9 FG), nine rebounds, and five blocks.  The Corsairs had 11 rejections as a team.  Denis Wainaina finished with four for KSC and has 80 on the season, moving within four of setting a new single-season Owl record.

The Owls' matchup against WestConn Saturday (February 14) will tip-off at 3:00 p.m.  It will be K-1 Youth Day, with members of the Keene Park and Rec youth basketball league attending both games of the doubleheader.  UMass-Dartmouth hosts Southern Maine the same day in their final home game.