Men's Basketball falls to in-state opponent Keene
New England College men’s basketball fell to Keene State College 56-91 in the Jacob’s Bridge Through Autism Classic held in Concord on Tuesday evening. With the loss the Pilgrims fall to 1-6 on the season, while the win improves the Owls to 4-2 overall.
The Pilgrims would keep it close throughout the opening five minutes trailing just 7-13 at the 14:18 mark. The Owls would then use a 10-2 run and jump out to the 23-9 lead midway through the half. NEC would try to muster some offense but were plagued with 11 first half turnovers as Keene would head into halftime up 47-27.
Keene continued to control much of the offensive tempo in the second half as the Owls shot and impressive 44% from the field and 43% from beyond the three-point arc building a forty point lead up 80-40 with 9:39 remaining in regulation. The Pilgrims would try to claw their way back in cutting the lead to 87-54 with two minutes remaining but the Owls would eventually cruise to the 91-56 victory.
Leading the way for NEC was Shane Hennessey who finished with his fourth double-double of the season scoring 18 points and pulling down 12 rebounds. NEC’s Rafael Salado chipped in 14 points and Jamie Davies was the only other Pilgrims in double digits scoring 10 points on the evening.
Leading the way for Keene State was Bryan O’Leary who led all scorers with 19 points. Keene’s Tyler Patch scored 12 points and Tyler Kathan chipped in eight points and grabbed a team-high nine assists.
