Nichols Men's Basketball - Post-Game Comments - Nov. 8 vs. Eastern Connecticut

DUDLEY, Mass. – The Nichols men's basketball team battled to a 90-83 victory over Eastern Connecticut in its season opener on Tuesday night at the Nichols Athletic Center.
 
The Bison, who are receiving votes in the latest D3hoops.com National Top 25 Poll, were led by senior and D3hoops.com preseason All-America fourth team selection, Jakigh Dottin, who scored 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting, while hauling in nine rebounds. Graduate student Matthew Alectus provided a double-double with 18 points and 14 rebounds, while junior Tavon Jones added 14 points, going 6-11 from the field. In his regular-season Nichols debut, junior Ty Rucker added a spark off the bench with 15 points.
 
Early in the first half, Dottin's layup on a fast break following a Tahmeen Dupree steal gave Nichols a 20-8 lead, forcing the Warriors into a timeout. Eastern Connecticut worked the deficit back down to 12, trailing 38-26 with 8:42 remaining in the half following two made free throws by Dan Wellington. Nichols would close the half on a 12-3 run, capped off by a Rucker steal-and-score in the closing seconds of the frame.
 
The Warriors, after being held to 28.1% first-half shooting, came out of the break scoring 19 points in the opening 4:40 of the second half to trail the Bison 56-48.
 
Nearly two minutes later, Dottin hauled in a rebound and threw it ahead to Alectus, who drained a deep contested three-pointer near the Nichols bench to put his team back up 11 and force the visitors to call a timeout.
 
With 9:10 to play, Alectus collected his 10th board of the game on a Dominick Doa missed layup and quickly tossed it ahead to Dupree, who dropped it off for Rucker, who spun it off the glass and in to bump the Bison lead to 12 yet again.
 
The Warriors would not go away down the stretch, as Eastern Connecticut got within three with 1:30 to play on a fast-break layup from Aden Goffe.
 
Jones made his sixth field goal of the contest with 1:09 to play, stopping in the paint and laying the ball in to give his side an 86-81 lead.
 
Dupree sealed the win for the Bison as he beat his defender in Jalen Williams to the left and nailed a floater in the paint to give Nichols a 88-83 lead with 11 seconds to play, which put the game on ice for the first win of the season.
 
With the win, Nichols has now won four of the last five season openers, dating back a 117-92 win over Newbury on November 15, 2017.
 
The Bison are set to travel to Trinity for their second game of the season on Saturday, November 12 with tip-off from Oosting Gymnasium set for 2 p.m.