DUDLEY, Mass. (1/17/24) – In about as close a game as one could hope for, senior guard
Tavon Jones played the hero for the Nichols College men's basketball program on a late three-point jumper with 00.2 seconds left to boost the Bison to a 68-67 victory over Wentworth Institute of Technology on Wednesday night at the Nichols Athletic Center.
The Bison extend their win streak to seven consecutive games and improve to 13-3 (7-1 CCC) overall. The Leopards slip to 7-9 (3-5 CCC) overall with the loss.
Jones filled the stat sheet with a team-high 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting, along with eight rebounds, six assists and three steals to lead the Bison in the win. Directly behind him was fellow senior
Mykel Derring with 17 points on the night, while
Deshaun Nettles picked up 12 points with six rebounds. Freshman
Jason Ofcarcik scored in double-figures for the sixth time in the last seven matchups, scoring 10 points with five boards, three steals and two assists. As a program, the Bison went 28-of-64 (43.8%) from the floor.
Nichols came out of the gate firing, with Derring burying a pair of quick three-pointers to get the Bison to a quick 13-9 lead. However, the Bison lead proved to be short lived as the Leopards responded with a 17-4 run to shift the score in their favor by a 28-19 margin. With 6:04 remaining in the half, Nichols then rebounded with a 9-0 run of their own behind seven points by Ofcarcik to make it a 28-28 ballgame. Ofcarcik then gave the Bison back a brief 32-31 lead with a dunk at the 00:54 mark, which led to a 34-34 tie between the two teams at halftime.
With the first half ending in a close dual, the second half continued to be close as well as both sides exchanged baskets. Nearing the five-minute mark of the contest, Wentworth witnessed a five-point, 59-54 lead vanish after
Dominic Mello drained a three-point jumper following a Jones layup, pulling the Bison back even with the Leopards at 59-all. Over the course of the next three minutes, both sides saw three more ties and three more lead changes up to a 65-65 stalemate with 1:26 to play. Neither team would convert on their next possessions before Wentworth seemingly struck gold with a two-point jumper with just 00:02 left in the game. Off the ensuing inbound, Jones then aggressively pushed the ball down the court and cashed in on the game winner, rewarding the Bison with a 68-67 win.
The Bison will look to make it eight in a row with a CCC showdown at Curry College (8-8, 2-6 CCC) this Saturday, January 21
st at 2:00 PM.
