THE BASICS 

Score: Keene State 62, Emerson 54

Location: Keene, N.H. (Spaulding Gymnasium) 

Date: December 30, 2022

The Lead: Two members of the Emerson men's basketball team notched double figures with graduate Jarred Houston's 14 point-20 rebound effort followed by 11 points from freshman Brendan McNamara as the Lions slipped to No. 6 Keene State, 62-54, on Friday night. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS 

EMERSON

Houston: 14 points, 20 rebounds, five assists, six blocks

McNamara: 11 points

Sean Coman: two steals

KEENE STATE

Octavio Brito: 17 points

Jeff Hunter: 16 points, 16 rebounds, four blocks

Mason Jean Baptiste: 15 points

Nate Siow: five assists, three steals

HOW IT HAPPENED 

• A bucket from Houston extend Emerson to an early 10-5 lead six minutes into the opening half before a 9-2 spurt by Keene to push the hosts ahead, 13-12, with 11:42 on the clock.
• After Brito knocked down a jumper at 6:53 to give the Owls a three-point 19-16 edge, back-to-back baskets from McNamara helped get Emerson going on a little 7-0 spark and reclaimed the lead, 23-19, with 5:21 to go.
• It was within the final 4:12 of the frame that saw Emerson and Keene exchanged the lead four times. Through the final 2:50, Emerson used layups from seniors Ben Allen and Max Davis to give the visitors the one-point 29-28 advantage at the break. 
• Emerson and Keene carried the back-and-forth battle into the second stanza and saw four more lead changes occur before the Owls set off on 6-0 streak to give them their biggest lead of five (38-33) at the 13:09 mark.
• The Lions continued to play from behind and were able to close the gap to two at 9:25 when a free throw from graduate Nate Martin moved the score to 40-38. 
• Two was the closest Emerson would come to Keene down the stretch as the game took to the free throw stripe through the last 30 seconds. 
• Martin sent up one last trey with five ticks on the clock for Emerson's final points as the final sat at 62-54. 

UP NEXT

• Emerson turns the calendar to 2023 with their NEWMAC home opener on Wednesday, January 4th and will host Babson at 5:00 p.m.