WORCESTER, Mass. -- Junior Maurice Horton tallied a season-best 30 points while pulling down 13 rebounds to lead Worcester State to an 82-75 men's basketball victory over Nichols Tuesday at Lancer Gymnasium. The win improves the Lancers to 1-3 while the Bison dip to 2-3. WSC is now 51-30 all-time against Nichols since they started playing in 1960.

Horton scored 22 of his 30 points and grabbed seven of his 13 boards in the second half alone while he went 12-for-17 from the charity stripe. Junior Elijah Sims contributed 12 of his 23 points in the second period with three steals. Classmate Darren Schmidt pulled down eight rebounds while Brandon Fortes notched eight points.

Senior Jeff Lindgren (Sturbridge, Mass.) paced Nichols with 19 points while classmate John Costello (Tolland, Conn.) and sophomore Chris Smith (Moosup, Conn.) each corralled eight rebounds. Costello also added 12 points. Ryan Wilcox (West Granby, Conn.) and Pete Atkins (Gainesville, Fla.) added 15 and 11 points off the bench respectively.  

The difference in the game was how each team shot the ball in the two halves. In the opening period Nichols shot 52% (11-for-21) from the floor while Worcester State hit at a 29.7% (11-for-37) clip from the field. In the second half the Lancers held the visitors to 38% inside the arc while WSC connected for 47% (18-for-38) of their attempts.

Both teams were even in rebounding margin (41-41) while the Blue and Gold shot just 18% (3-for-16) from beyond the three point line.

Worcester State scored 24 second chance points while also taking advantage of 21 Nichols miscues with 24 points off of turnovers.

Both teams will play night games on Thursday. WSC will travel to take on Clark at 7 PM while Nichols entertains NESCAC foe Connecticut College at 8.

Story courtesy WSC Sports Information

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