KSC to Host LEC Quarterfinals Games
KEENE, N.H. 2/20/06 - Both Keene State men’s and women’s basketball teams will host Little East Conference quarterfinal final games at Spaulding Gym on Tuesday night. The fourth-seeded Keene State women’s team (15-10) will play fifth seed Plymouth State University (10-14) at 5:30 p.m. The men’s game between top seed and the LEC regular season champion Owls (18-6) and eighth seed Southern Maine (10-14) is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
The Owl women will be playing the Panthers for the third time this season. KSC won both previous meetings, 69-54 in Keene and 71-54 last week in Plymouth. “At this stage of the season it comes down to execution and who shows up to play the entire 40 minutes,” said KSC Coach Keith Boucher.
Keene State is coming off a tough 88-29 loss to top ranked (Division III) Southern Maine on Saturday. Boucher hopes Saturday’s loss won’t have a lingering affect on his team. “We’re still licking our wounds, but they want to get back out on the floor and show that we’re a better team,” he said. “When you’re knocked to the ground you want to get right back up and prove something.”
Keene State defeated Plymouth State (68-57) in last year’s quarterfinals.
Winners of four straight and seven out of their last eight games, the top- seeded Owl men enter the tournament on a roll. Ranked eighth in the New England region, KSC has won two tough games against the Huskies this season, 103-96 in Keene and 68-66 in Gorham on Saturday. KSC Coach Rob Colbert expects another difficult game on Tuesday. “Southern Maine is a very pesky team. It’s difficult playing the same team in a short period of time,” he said.
A victory by the KSC women will send them up to Southern Maine for a semifinal game against the Huskies on Friday night. If the Owl men advance, they will play the winner of the game between fourth seed Plymouth State and fifth seed UMass-Dartmouth. KSC will host both semifinal games on Friday (6 p.m. and 8 p.m.) and the championship contest on Saturday.
The KSC women advanced to the finals of the LEC Tournament for the first time last year. The Owl men captured their first-ever LEC Tournament title in 2004.
