DUDLEY, Mass. – Senior captain Gustave Koumare (Harlem, N.Y.) scored a career-high 31 points to lead the Nichols College men's basketball team to a 107-68 win over Western New England in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Quarterfinal round Tuesday night at the Nichols Athletic Center.
 
With the win, the top-seeded Bison equaled the program-record of 23 wins, set during the 2013-14 campaign, and extended their school-record winning streak to 15 games. They advance to the CCC Semifinals for the second time in three years and host No. 4 Endicott Thursday night at 7 p.m.
 
Koumare – who was named to the CCC First Team in Monday – scored 21 of his points in the first half and finished the night shooting 11-of-17 from the field (65 percent). He also picked up nine rebounds, six dimes, and one steal as he inched closer to the 1,000 career point milestone. Koumare has 974 career points and is seeking to become the 27th student-athlete in program history to reach the milestone and second this season, joining classmate Irving Eggleston (East Lyme, Conn.), who was named both CCC Player and Defensive Player of the Year on Monday.
 
Freshman Marcos Echevarria (Lynn, Mass.) dropped in 26 points – including six 3-poiners – while Eggleston notched a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds to go along with four steals in 25 minutes. Juniors Devin Stallings (Waterbury, Conn.) and Brandon Marshall (Hartford, Conn.) each scored nine for Nichols, which shot 45 percent on the evening and held a 56-36 edge on the glass.
 
"The kids came out and made a lot of shot early," said Nichols head coach Tom Glynn. "They defended well and executed the game plan very well, specifically in the first 10 minutes of the game. We wanted to be very solid defensively early on and not give them any easy shots. We wanted to push the ball and create easy shots for us."
 
Western New England freshman Mikey Pettway (Bridgeport, Conn.) scored 12 points but was 5-of-16 from the field with five turnovers. Freshman Tyler Johnson (Vernon, Conn.) also netted 12 while junior Mike Gelineau (Waltham, Mass.) knocked down three 3-pointers and finished with 11.
 
The Bison built a 24-2 lead less than seven minutes into the contest behind nine from Koumare and seven from Eggleston. The lead grew to 26 when Koumare rattled home a three at the 6:20 mark (41-15), and his layup with 24 seconds remaining in the half sent Nichols to the locker room with a 30-point lead (55-25). Koumare and Echevarria combined for 35 of Nichols' 55 first-half points.
 
Nichols kept its foot on the accelerator in the second half, pushing the lead to 39 points at 81-42 on a three from Echevarria, then lead by as many as 44 following another three, this one from junior Jared Thompson (Scituate, R.I.), at the 7:26 mark The Bison's largest lead of the evening was 45 points, which came with less than three minutes remaining.
 
"In the back of our head, the seniors and returning players were thinking about last year at the start of the game," said Koumare, referencing last season's last-second loss to No. 8 UNE in the Quarterfinal round. "We wanted to come out, go hard from the beginning, and get it done right away."
 
The Bison – who led wire-to-wire – sank 37 percent of their three-point field goals (14-of-38) and held the Golden Bears to 34 percent from the field (23-of-67). Nichols also made 19 of its 22 free throws (86 percent).
 
The 107 points scored by the Bison was the second-highest total against the Golden Bears in the 45 all-time meetings between the schools, behind only the 118 scored in a win in Dudley on February 20, 1994. Nichols leads the series, 22-13.
 
In the other CCC Semifinal, No. 6 Roger Williams will host No. 7 UNE Thursday night. The Hawks overcame a 10-point halftime deficit (38-28) to stun No. 3 Eastern Nazarene, 68-67, in Quincy while the Nor'easters rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit to knock off No. 2 Wentworth 61-58 in Boston.