DUDLEY, Mass. (1/4/23) – A 16-point lead following of the first half paid dividends for the Nichols College men's basketball team, who defeated Gordon College in Commonwealth Coast Conference action by a 94-75 score at the Nichols Athletic Center on Thursday night.

The Bison's third straight win moves them to 9-3 (3-1 CCC) overall, while the Fighting Scots drop to 3-9 (1-3 CCC) with the loss.

Junior Dominic Mello and senior Tavon Jones matched each other with 17-point performances on the night to lead the Bison attack, with freshman Jason Ofcarcik scoring a career-high 16 points with eight rebounds. Junior Deshaun Nettles ended the night with 14 points, while graduate Brent Kelly added 11 in the effort. Additionally, Jones corralled a game-high nine rebounds. The Bison connected on 54.2% (39-of-72) of their shots from the field for their highest shooting performance of the season, which also included 38 points off the bench.

Mello opened the scoring for Nichols just under two and a half minutes into the contest with a fastbreak jumper in the paint off a Gordon turnover, which sparked several minutes of closely contested play. Then, at the 10:33 mark, Nichols started pulling away with an 8-0 run highlighted by back-to-back threes by Mello and Jones, giving the Bison a 26-17 edge. Following a timeout, Gordon managed to cut down the Bison lead to just five points nearing the five-minute mark but failed to close the gap any further. Over the course of the final four minutes, the Bison outscored the Scots 13-4, eventually settling for a 16-point, 51-35 lead heading into the intermission.

Out of the pause, the Bison responded a brief Gordon 4-0 run with six unanswered points of their own, pushing their lead up to 18 points on the Fighting Scots. At 14:59, freshman Simon Percy made it a 20-point difference with a floating jumper from in close off a feed by Jones, and then 22 points shortly thereafter on a dunk at 13:19, again from Jones. The rest of the way through, both teams traded buckets with Gordon applying some pressure late to bring the score to 88-75 Bison. In the final minute of the game, Nichols would convert for three more baskets, resulting in the 94-75 win over the Fighting Scots.   

The Bison kick off a three-game road swing with a 3:00 PM conference tilt at the University of New England on Saturday, January 6^th at Coach Beaudry's Court in Biddeford, Maine.