KEENE, NH- The SUNY New Paltz men’s basketball team traveled to Keene State for a non-conference game Sunday evening at the Spaulding Gymnasium. The Hawks defeated Keene State 110-109 in double-overtime (Box Score). The Hawks improve to 3-2 overall and return to the court Tuesday against cross town rival Vassar at 7 p.m. Keene State falls to 2-3 overall.
“I am very proud of these guys because we trailed by six with less than two minutes to go in the second overtime and these guys never gave up” said head coach Dagan Nelson. “They showed a lot of resilience and heart to come back and win this game.”
Shereef Taylor and Harris Wichard each scored a game-high 27 points. It was a career-high for Wichard. Taylor added eight rebounds, two blocks and five steals and Oppong Agyemang netted eight points, a career and game-high 12 assists and three steals. Jayquan Anderson scored 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting and had a game-high nine rebounds.
Keene State was led by Eric Fazio with 22 points on 11-of-11 shooting and Derek D’Amours added 20 points. Cody Snow chipped in with 19 points, nine rebounds and two blocks.
Keene held a 108-102 lead with 1:42 remaining in the second overtime. The Hawks would finish the game on an 8-1 run with the game-winning three-pointer from Taylor with four seconds to go. Nick Taldi pulled the Hawks within three at 108-105 with a three-pointer and Harris Wichard pulled the Hawks within one at 108-107 with a lay-up with 16 seconds to go.
In the first overtime, Taylor gave the Hawks a 97-95 lead with 29 seconds to go, but Fazio lay-up with 11 seconds tied the game. The Hawks had one last chance to win the game at the buzzer, but the shot was missed.
The Hawks came out in the second half trailing 47-40, but opened with a 19-6 run to take a 59-53 advantage and would never trail the rest of the half. In the first half, Keene opened the game with a 12-4 lead and would push their lead to as many as 14 at 27-13. The Hawks would chip away slowly and were able to get the lead to under double-digits at the break.
