DUDLEY, Mass. (11/7/2026) - The Nichols men's basketball team dropped a hard-fought 61-53 battle against Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in their 2026–27 season and home opener at the Nichols Athletic Center on Saturday afternoon.
Nichols opens the new season at 0-1 overall, while WPI moves to 1-0 with the win.
The first half was a back-and-forth defensive chess match featuring seven lead changes and eight ties.
Jaylen Kirkland got the Bison on the board early with a quick jumper and a tough layup in the paint to establish a 4-2 lead, before WPI responded from deep. Nichols continued to impress with a pair of late first-half layups by
Anthony Zingarella and
Edrick Quezada, which kept Nichols within striking distance, entering halftime trailing by just one, 28-27.
Nichols found their rhythm early in the second half. Following a quick WPI run,
Luke Chapman drilled a clutch three-pointer, and
Simon Percy followed up with a driving layup to snatch a 33-32 lead for the hosts. Shortly thereafter, a dunk by Kirkland off a WPI turnover helped extend the Bison lead to 35-32. Nichols continually pushed their advantage, eventually extending it to its highest point of the game at 45-37 with 9:34 remaining after another Percy layup.
However, WPI clawed back with a late 9-1 run to knot the game at 49-49. While
Cassidy Bonsu briefly reclaimed the lead for Nichols at 51-49 on another inside layup with four minutes to go, WPI's Jack Bleier answered with a matching bucket and consecutive free throws to give the Engineers a lead they would not surrender. As the remaining moments of the half ensued, Nichols ran into a string of late turnovers in the final two minutes, forcing them to foul as WPI secured the game at the charity stripe.
The Bison interior defense and baseline execution provided the biggest highlights of the afternoon. Bonsu was flawless inside, finishing a perfect 4-for-4 from the field with a team-high 10 points, anchoring a 32-26 paint scoring advantage for the Bison. Off the bench, Quezada provided a massive physical spark, dominating the boards with a team-high eight rebounds to go along with eight points, while Percy rounded out the top individual efforts, logging a team-high 33 minutes with nine points scored.
Men's basketball will next travel to Rhode Island College (0-0) on Wednesday, November 11
th for their first road test of the new season. Game start is set for 7:30 PM at The Murray Center.
