The wins halts a three-game slide for the Huskies and improves their record to 14-10 overall and 8-5 in the Little East Conference.  The Huskies have secured a home game for the quarterfinals of the 2013 Little East Conference tournament beginning on Tuesday, February 19. Suffering its fourth straight loss, Plymouth State falls to 6-18 overall and 2-11 in the LEC. 

         Kee was 3-for-5 from three-point range to lead the Huskies.  Sullivan added a team-high nine rebounds to go along with his 13 points.  Junior forward James Odneal (Pontiac, Mich./Bottineau) and freshman guard Cole Libby (Buxton, Maine/Bonny Eagle) each scored nine points.

         Freshman forward Uche Nwokeji (Lynn, Mass./Lynn Classical) led the Panthers with a 14-point, 21-rebound double-double.  Sophomore guared Alex Burt (Dover, N.H.) added 14 points.  Junior Petey Skevas (Wethersfield, Conn.) chipped in with seven points, five assists and six rebounds.

         Sullivan scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half to pace the Huskies to a solid 27-17 halftime advantage.  The Huskies held Plymouth State to just eight field goals, a 30.6 percent mark from the field and forced the Panthers into 10 turnovers in the opening half.

         A three from Odneal early in the second half gave USM its largest lead, 30-18, with 17:21 to play, but the Pathers rallied back with an 8-0 run to pull to within four, 30-26, with 14:50 remaining to make it a game.  Burt and Skevas hit back-to-back threes to start the run, while Nwokeji converted a layup. 

         A three by Kee halted the scoreless drought for USM, but was matched on PSU's next possession by senior guard Kevin Eisenberg (Moultonborough, N.H.) for a score of 33-29 in favor of the Huskies, before Kee knocked down his second three-pointer in short order to start 7-1 run.  Following Kee's three pointer, senior guard Brian Alexander (Bradenton, Fla./Southeast) knocked down to free throws for a quick four-point swing. One of two free throws from Nwokeji broke up the USM run which was capped by a layup from Libby for a 40-30 USM lead with 10:00 to play.

         The Huskies kept an 8-10 point advantage through the rest of the half until the final two minutes of action.  The Panthers cut the Huskies' margin to five twice in the final minutes of action, but USM closed the game out on the free throw line sinking 9-of-9 from the charity stripe in the final 62 seconds.  Kee was 5-for-5 from the free throw line and Odneal was 4-for-4.

Southern Maine hosts UMass Dartmouth for "Senior Day" on Saturday (3:00 p.m.) in its regular season finale.  Plymouth State hosts Western Connecticut on Saturday (3:00 p.m.).   

–cac–