DUDLEY, MASS.- The Nichols Men's Basketball Team lost a hard-fought Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) matchup with Western New England University on Tuesday night. Nichols fell to 6-5, 2-2 in the CCC.  Western New England improved to 8-2 on the season, and remained undefeated in the CCC.
 
Nichols started the first half strong, building a 14-8 lead 7 minutes in. Western New England would respond by going on a 29-7 run to end the first half leading 37-21. Ty Rucker paced the Bison with 14 first half points. Western New England held the Bison to just 25% shooting through one half.
 
Nichols would fight their way back in what was an extremely physical second half. A Jakigh Dottin 3 cut it to 6 with just under 13 minutes left to play. For every scoring run the Bison would go on, Western New England would answer back with a run of their own. Three Western New England layups in a row would extend their lead to 17 with 7 minutes remaining.  Despite cutting it down to 8 points, the deficit would prove to be too much to overcome for Nichols, as the Golden Bears prevailed by the score of 86-72.
 
Rucker led Nichols in scoring for the night with 25 points. He also added 3 steals on the defensive end. Tavon Jones finished with 21 points and 7 boards. Nate Duckworth facilitated the ball well all night, dishing out 10 assists.
 
Nichols will look to get back in the win column on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. when they travel to take on Suffolk in a CCC battle.