KEENE, N.H. – Junior Jordan Cooper scored 15 points in the second half and sophomore Gabe Marquis added a big three late as part of his second consecutive double-digit scoring effort as the No. 2 seeded Keene State College men's basketball team grinded out a 63-59 win over sixth-seeded Rutgers University-Camden in an Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) semifinal game on Sunday afternoon at Spaulding Gymnasium.

The win advances KSC (19-11) to the championship game next Saturday and gives fans one more chance to catch the Owls in person as they will take on No. 5 seed New Jersey City University, who advanced with a 76-73 home win over top-seed University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg.

Keene State got off to an exceptionally slow start against a Scarlet Raptors (14-12) team that was coming off a near 61 percent shooting performance in a three-point win over third-seeded McDaniel College in Saturday's second game.  Rutgers-Camden picked up exactly where they left off, making six of their first seven shots from the field including an eye-popping 5-of-6 from three in the opening five minutes as they sprinted out to a 17-2 lead.  The Owls still trailed by eight (35-27) at the break and never led, but began to jam up the visitors' offense, and ultimately that paid off as they held Rutgers-Camden to just 25 percent shooting over the final 35 minutes – and that included a cosmetic basket with two seconds left that set the final margin.

Chipping and chipping away, the Owls' first lead came with 9:33 to go at 43-42 on a jumper from Isaac Ogutuga.  But that was part of a much bigger shift, as KSC used a game-changing 13-0 surge over a 6:12 second half span to flip a 42-37 deficit into a game-high eight-point lead (50-42) with 6:51 to go.  Cooper and Kareem Porter Jr. combined for 11 points in that span, where the Owls defensively forced the Scarlet Raptors into nine consecutive misses from the field and two turnovers.  KSC had erased the eight-point halftime deficit within the opening five minutes, tying it at 35-35 on Jordan McClain's layup, but a triple by Eric Benjamin put Rutgers-Camden up 39-35 with 14:15 to go and the visitors led by five again at the 13:18 mark.

It was all Owls from there, though, as Cooper did what he can do, scoring 13 points the rest of the way to nearly match the Raptors' entire team total.  When he goes, so too does KSC – even with a younger lineup gaining experience in the ECACs – as they shot 50 percent over the game's final 13 high-leverage minutes. 

A Cooper layup with 4:58 to go put the Owls up 53-46, but Rutgers-Camden reeled off the next six in less than two minutes to give themselves a chance in a half where they could not score much.  But Marquis, who was the leading scorer in yesterday's runaway win over the University of Maine-Presque Isle, canned a big three 15 seconds after the lead dwindled to one.  Cooper finished around the rim with 2:01 left to push KSC up four after the visitors again got within one possession, and the Owls held them to no field goals for nearly the last two minutes to get their second homecourt win in as many days.  Cooper's steal and dunk with 50 seconds left that pushed the lead to six wound up being the exclamation point as the Owls moved within a win in the championship from engineering their fifth consecutive 20-win season.

KSC also improved to 12-3 on their homecourt in 2025-2026, and will suit up in the home whites for one final time when they take on NJCU (16-12, 10-8 NJAC) next Saturday (March 14) at 1:00 p.m.  The Gothic Knights do have a few common opponents, having lost at Western Connecticut State University 73-65 in December while also going 1-1 against Rutgers-Camden, falling 70-64 in their regular-season finale.  New Jersey City lost 73-61 at home to Rowan University in the NJAC quarterfinals to find themselves in the ECAC bracket, where they defeated Franciscan University (Ohio) at home 66-56 before today's upset of Pitt-Greensburg.

The Owls are 68-9 at Spaulding Gymnasium since the beginning of the decade.