KEENE, N.H. – When the Keene State College men's basketball team took the court in Boston last Saturday, everyone involved with the program knew it was a busy stretch upcoming.  Seven games, six in league, and three on the road in a 14 day span.  Consider the Owls off to a flying start in that mid-season stretch, as KSC posted a second straight destruction of an opponent in a three-day span, this time handing Western Connecticut State University a 100-62 loss in Little East Conference action Thursday night at Spaulding Gymnasium.

The Owls (11-3, 6-0 LEC) made a season-high 18 three-pointers, including a 12-for-25 showing (48 percent) in the opening 20 minutes as they built a 54-26 halftime lead before leading by as many as 43 points in the second half.  KSC would go on to win by 38 points, the largest win in the history of the 62 games series that the Owls lead 42-20 including a 25-9 mark at Spaulding Gymnasium.  It would be safe to say that the home team carried over their momentum from a similar rout Tuesday on the road at Eastern Connecticut State University, when they shot 12-of-24 from deep including a 5-for-5 mark from Mitch Shettles to post a 99-61 victory, also the largest in that series against a conference opponent from Connecticut.

Keene State has now started 6-0 in Little East play for the fourth consecutive season and seventh time in program history since joining the membership prior to the 1997-1998 season – and it has been dominant, winning five of the six games by 30 points or more.  Their plus-198 point differential in their six league games is 65 better than then next closest team that began 6-0 in conference action (2023-2024; +133).  Four of the six previous teams reached the NCAA tournament, with two making the Sweet 16 and one – KSC's breakthrough team in 2003-2004 – the Elite 8.

It remains to be seen what the Owls' postseason will look like this year, but if five people make multiple threes as happened tonight, it would figure to be a bright outlook.  Spencer Aronson began the night off with a trey on KSC's first offensive possession, and the Owls would go on to sprint out to a 7-0 lead in less than three minutes.  WestConn (8-8, 4-3 LEC) scored the next four to get within three for a nanosecond, at which point the Owls ripped off a 13-3 to go up double-figures for good at the 13:14 mark.  Shettles remained hot, making it 20-7 with 12:31 to go in the half before Joshua Williams joined in on the three-point fun with two of his own over the next minute to make it 26-9.  Liam Johnston followed with a long range make and Shettles two more over the ensuing three minutes to push KSC's lead to 26 (35-9) – and that told the story.  In a 9:02 span after WestConn made it 7-4, the Owls ripped off a 28-5 sprint in which they made a remarkable 8-of-10 from deep and held the Wolves to a 1-of-11 mark from the floor and forced seven turnovers.  Shettles had nine points and Williams six during the run, both outscoring WCSU's team by themselves.

The Owls did not relent, going up 44-12 on a four-point play by Mason Jean Baptiste before carrying a 28-point lead to the locker room following an Octavio Brito three in the final 40 seconds of the half.

Aronson capped off his five-three night by draining three in the opening six minutes of the second half – his final one making it 70-32 with 14:04 to go.  The senior sharpshooter finished with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, 5-of-10 from deep, and added five assists, three rebounds, and three steals.  Brito (13 pts., 4-9 FG, 2-4 3-PT, 9 reb., 3 asst., 2 blk.), Jean Baptiste (12 pts., 3-7 3-PT, 3-4 FT, 4 reb.), Shettles (11 pts., 4-8 FG, 3-6 3-PT, 2 reb.), and Williams (11 pts., 4-5 FG, 3-3 3-PT, 2 asst.) all joined him in double-figures.  Aronson (5), Williams (3), Shettles (3), Jean Baptiste (3), and Brito (2) all made multiple triples as the Owls finished 18-for-43 (42 percent) from beyond the arc and improved to 10-0 when making at least 10 threes.

Marcel Henry paced WestConn with 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting off the bench while Nicholas Moore had 10.  The Wolves, who had beaten Eastern Connecticut 78-67 on the road and the University of Southern Maine 76-74 at home before a two-point loss at league unbeaten Rhode Island College on Tuesday night, were outscored 54-9 from three-point range and have lost nine of their last 11 games in Keene, five by double-digits.  The Owls won their seventh league title (third straight) a season ago with an 84-68 win over the Wolves on February 24, beating them in the final for the second consecutive season.

The big week continues for KSC on Saturday when they welcome Rhode Island College for a 4:00 p.m. tip-off.  The Anchormen (11-4) enter the game tied with the Owls for first place at 6-0, winning their six conference matchups by a combined 21 points.  Despite having a league bye this evening, RIC will also be playing their third game of the week as they eventually did enough to put away 4-11 Fitchburg State University 86-79 at The Murray Center tonight.  WestConn hosts the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (5-9, 2-4 LEC), a 98-96 victor over the University of Southern Maine in North Dartmouth tonight, on Saturday at 3:00 p.m.