Keene State to Host Quarterfinal LEC Tournament Games

KEENE, N.H.  2/23/09 -If recent history is any indication, Keene State men's and women's basketball teams should walk off the Spaulding Gym court with wins following their Little East Conference quarterfinal games on Tuesday night. 

The fourth seeded Keene State women (19-6) face fifth seed and rival Plymouth State (16-9) at 5:30 p.m.  The men's game between fourth seed Keene State (11-13) and fifth seed Eastern Conn. State (12-13) is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.

Playing home first-round games is nothing new for the Owls.  Since the conference reverted back to an eight-team tournament format in 2002-03, Keene State has hosted both men's and women's games six out of the past seven years.  No other LEC team comes close to the Owls when it comes to home game hospitality.  During the same period, only R.I. College has had more than one doubleheader (2) while three teams, UMass-Boston, UMass-Dartmouth, and Western Conn., never hosted both men's and women's first-round games.

Spaulding Gym has also served as a winning venue for the Owls.  In the past six years, Keene State has posted men's and a woman's opening-round victories four times.  There are two exceptions, the KSC women dropped an 80-64 quarterfinal game at UMass-Dartmouth in 2004 and the Owl men fell at home to the Corsairs 89-82 in 2005.

The Keene State women will be facing Plymouth State for the fifth time in the quarterfinals, including four out of the past five years.  After losing to the Panthers (90-74) in 2000, the Owls reeled off three straight wins from 2005-07. KSC has also won the last 10 regular season meetings between the two teams, prevailing 72-50 in Plymouth and 76-54 in Keene this season.

Despite the Owls' success, KSC Coach Keith Boucher doesn't think his team will come into the game overconfident.  "It was a four-point game with about five minutes to play up in Plymouth and we were fortunate to make some plays," he said.  "This time of year you should go in confident, but not overconfident.  Because this is one and done time."

Keene State will be looking to get the ball into the hands of their top two scorers, juniors Kristin Degou (13.0 ppg.) and Nicole Simmler (11.2 ppg.).  The Panthers are led by the forward trio of Amanda Kania (12.8 ppg.), Laura Kent (11.8 ppg.), and Alicia Doucet (10.2 ppg.). Doucet is a four-time LEC rookie of the week.

The Owls have made two trips to the finals, losing to Southern Maine in 2005 (68-29) and 2007 (68-57). Plymouth advanced to the championship game four times.

The Keene State men have split a pair of one-point, first-round games against Eastern Conn.  In 2000, ECSU edged KSC 80-79 in Willimantic while the Owls nipped the Warriors (62-61) at Spaulding Gym in 2003.

 The two teams each won on their home court this season.  The Owls won 73-63 in Keene and the Warriors handed KSC a 73-53 road loss last week.

KSC Coach Rob Colbert says preparing for the Warriors presents a very unique challenge.   "Offensively speaking, they're very diversified." he said.  "They have some big kids, some shooters, and quick guards, so you can't concentrate on just one thing. We just played them, so we should be familiar with what they do.  We need to defend with more urgency if we're going to have a chance to beat them."

The Owls will need big games from senior forwards Tyler Kathan (18.0 ppg., 10.2 rpg.)and Nate Anderson (13.3 ppg., 8.4 rpg).  Kathan picked up a couple of early fouls in last week's game against ECSU and finished with 13 points. KSC must keep an eye on Edwin Ortiz; the Warrior junior guard is averaging 13.1 ppg.

"We‘d like to have a better record and be in a different position, but we're at home and we do have the same chances as everyone else," said Colbert.  Everyone has to win three games to capture the championship.

Keene State has made six trips to the finals, winning its lone title in 2004.  Eastern has played in three championship games, claiming the crown in 1992 and 2000.