Eagle Times Staff
KEENE, NH — Sophomore center Joshua Bernstein made a layup with less than 2 seconds remaining and junior guard Khai Champion scored a team-leading 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting off the bench as 12th-ranked Tufts University rallied for a 65-63 win over the No. 5 ranked Keene State College men’s basketball team in the final game before a holiday break for both teams Saturday afternoon, Dec. 9, at Spaulding Gymnasium. It was the first meeting between the programs since they squared off in the second round of the NCAA tournament a season ago on the same court.
The Owls led by seven with 7 minutes to go, five with 5 minutes to go, and four with 3:44 on the clock, but made just one more field goal after that and suffered a tough home loss in a battle of ranked teams with a resume-boosting win on the line. The Jumbos, who trailed for every second from 14:54 on the clock in the first half to 2:18 left in the second half, both tied the game and went ahead on Bernstein’s three-point play at the 2:17 mark. It was their first lead since it was 8-6 less than 4 minutes in. KSC subsequently missed on the other end, and James Morakis then made one of his four field goals in a 4-for-14 effort an important one, a bucket that put his team up 63-60 with under a minute to go. Jeff Hunter made 1-of-2 at the line on the Owls’ trip and, following a Morakis travel as the Jumbos tried the advance the ball up the court, Nate Siow retied the game at 63 with a layup, beating Champion and Bernstein with a layup off the glass. However, Tufts made having the last possession count as Jay Dieterle found Bernstein down low for a game-winning layup with under 2 seconds to go. Off Keene State’s inbound, Tahmeen Dupree’s heave from beyond half court was well off the mark.
One could make a case the only reason Tufts was in the game — down six (32-26) at halftime — was because of Champion, who scored 12 points (46 percent of his team’s scoring output) on 5-of-6 shooting and 2-of-2 from three. The rest of the Jumbos combined to go 5-for-31 (16 percent) and make just 1-of-7 from the three-point line. The Owls shot 40 percent overall from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, getting 10 points (5-8 FG) and eight boards from Hunter, but missed all eight of their tries from distance and despite having several chances to open a bigger lead, could not. Alonzo Linton sank a jumper at the 12:17 mark to put KSC up six (14-8), but Champion scored twice in 17 seconds as Tufts scored six straight to tie the game. The Owls then held the Jumbos scoreless for the next 6 minutes and ran off a 10-0 surge, going up 24-14 after baskets by Ryan Brooks and Dupree on consecutive possessions. However, they missed a pair of shots on one possession a short time later and then watched Dieterle drain a three to make it 24-18 with 4:33 on the clock. Dupree pushed the KSC advantage back to eight (28-20) with 3:05 to go and it was still 30-23 two minutes later following a jumper by Octavio Brito. After a Tufts miss, Brito tried from long distance on the other end with less than 1 minute to go that would have given KSC a double-digit lead. However, it missed, and then Champion did not on the other end, and it was 30-26 before Brito got a kind bounce ahead of the halftime buzzer for a six-point lead at halftime. Keene State shot 13 percentage points higher than the Jumbos (40-27) in the first half and outrebounded the visitors by nine but turned the ball over seven times.
The Owls maintained the advantage early in the second half, as Brito made a three at the 18:11 mark to make it a 35-28 lead and Hunter a layup with 15:13 to go that made it 41-34, but their offense was never humming — and it ultimately cost them. KSC shot only 32 percent from the floor (12-for-37) in the final 20 minutes and made just one out of 15 tries from behind the arc on the day. They were outscored 18-3 from three-point range, a tough hole to climb out of in a close, low-scoring game. While Champion kept Tufts in the game the whole time, KSC could not corral Bernstein, particularly in the second half when he finished with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting, made all four of his free throws, grabbed seven rebounds and added two blocks. After a miserable opening 20 minutes, Tufts shot 47 percent (15-for-32) after halftime, made 3-of-5 from deep and all six free throws. It was the opposite story for Keene State, who after taking the 41-34 lead, made just eight of their final 26 shots (31 percent). The Owls were only 2-of-8 from the field after taking a 58-53 edge on Linton’s layup with 5:04 left, a 4:44 stretch of crunch time.
Hunter wound up scoring 22 of KSC’s 63 points, making 9-of-14 shots from the field (4-8 FT) while adding 12 rebounds and three blocks. Brito had 15 points and nine rebounds but was held to 6-for-18 shooting. Siow added 10 (4-8 FG, 2-2 FT), four rebounds and four assists. The Owls and Jumbos each had 10 turnovers, though KSC’s came at key times, none bigger than after Bernstein’s three-point play that put them down one. They also had two others following offensive rebounds while nursing a 43-37 lead with 13 minutes to go, and then saw Tufts make a three to get right back within three — all baskets that added up in the end.
Champion made all three of his tries from three in his team-leading 17-point effort Bernstein was 5-for-9 from the floor, 5-for-6 at the foul line and added 11 rebounds (four offensive), three blocks and two assists. Scott Gyimesi had 10 points (5-14 FG), nine rebounds and three assists as the Jumbos avoided losing three straight to KSC despite shooting a season-worst 36.2 percent as a team.
Keene State is not in action again until after the New Year when they travel to face Vermont State University Castleton (3-6, 0-2 LEC) on Jan. 3 at 6 p.m. The Spartans have lost four of five, including a 96-73 defeat at home today against league opponent Western Connecticut State University.
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