Springfield, Mass. - November 24, 2015 - The Springfield College men's basketball dropped an 87-78 decision to Keene State in non-conference action on Tuesday evening in Blake Arena.

The Owls improved to 5-0 on the year, while Springfield, which was coming off a victory over the nation's 12th-ranked team on Saturday, dropped to 2-3.

Josh Downes (East Sandwich, Mass.) led all players with a career-best 25 points, marking the third time this season he has eclipsed the 20-point plateau.  Alex Garstka (Westfield, Mass.) came off the bench to pour in 21 points, including 19 in the second half, and Larry Piretra (Oakland, N.J.) hauled in a game-high 11 boards.  Springfield held a 48-40 edge in points in the paint in the contest.

For Keene State, four different players netted double figures in the scoring column, with Dizel Wright (Springfield, Mass.) returning to his hometown to record a double double with 17 points and 10 boards, including six on the offensive glass.  Nate Stitchell (Coventry, R.I.) added 14 points, six assists, and four steals, Matt Ozzella (Medway, Mass.) totaled 15 points, and Lucas Hammel (Methuen, Mass.) netted 14 points.  The Owls shot 45.9% (28-for-61) and converted 15 Springfield turnovers into 21 points.

The Owls entered the game averaging 97.5 points per game and pushed the tempo early to race out to a 16-6 lead just over six minutes into the contest after a fastbreak bucket by Ty Nichols (Springfield, Mass.).  The visitors would go on to lead by as much as 22 in the opening half,  as a pair of Wright free throws put the Owls ahead 34-12 with 6:15 on the clock.   Springfield would get as close as 16 when two free throws from Downes capped off an 11-5 push made it 39-23 with 3:20 remaining.  The Owls, which shot 47.1% in the stanza, went into the break with a 46-29 cushion.

Just under two minutes in the second half, Nate Howard (Cheshire, Conn.) took a feed from Wright and punched home a dunk to push the visitors lead to 27, their largest of the game.  Despite the strong play from Garstka, Springfield could not put a dent in the Owls margin as the visitors led by 20 for the majority of the half.  In the final 2:19, Springfield put together a 13-1 run, which included five points from Kam Khoshneviss (Simsbury, Conn.), to get as close as seven, but the Pride's comeback ran out of time as the Owls won by nine, 87-78.

Springfield will not play a home game in the month of December and will next hit the court on Tuesday, Dec. 8 when it travels to New Paltz for an 8:00 pm contest.