By PETE DIVITO
DUDLEY, Mass.—The top-seeded Nichols College men’s basketball team has advanced to the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championship for the third-consecutive season and will entertain No. 2 Gordon College Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. at the Hart Center on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross.
The Bison (24-2) – who began the week No. 15 in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll – advanced to the championship by virtue of an 87-79 win over No. 5 Western New England University Thursday night at the Nichols Athletic Center. Freshman Jaekwon Spencer came off the bench to post 15 points and 10 rebounds while junior Jerome Cunningham battled foul trouble all night yet filled the stat sheet with 17 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks, and three dimes.
The Fighting Scots (23-4), meanwhile, shot 68 percent from the floor in their 103-89 win over No. 3 Roger Williams at the Bennett Center last night. Senior Eric Demers poured in 34 points while classmate Garrisson Duvivier netted 28 as he became the college’s all-time leader in scoring.
The two schools will be meeting for the third time this season with each having won on the other’s home court. The Fighting Scots secured a 76-72 win in Dudley back on January 5 behind 32 points from Demers. The Bison shot just 37 percent from the field during that contest as both senior Marcos Echevarria and junior DeAnte Bruton – the top two scorers for head coach Scott Faucher – combined to shoot 12-of-38 (24.0 percent).
In the rematch less than 10 days ago in Wenham, Mass., Bruton dropped in a team-high 27 points and sophomore Matt Morrow recorded a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds in a 107-93 win. Duvivier and Demers combined for 66 points in the loss, which guaranteed the Bison home court advantage throughout the playoffs.
Saturday’s championship contest will mark the 46th all-time meeting between the two programs with the Bison holding a 25-20 lead, having won nine of the last 10 contests. The two played a classic CCC Championship contest five years ago in Dudley when the Fighting Scots stormed back from a 17-point second-half deficit to defeat the top-seeded Bison, 69-65. In that contest, CCC Defensive Player of the Year Hans Miersma racked up 15 points and 12 rebound as Gordon – down 56-39 with 10:32 remaining in the second half – closed the game on a 30-9 run to capture the conference crown.
Both teams feature top-end talent on both end of the floor. Demers (23.4 ppg) and Echevarria (20.0 ppg) rank second and fifth in the CCC in scoring, respectively, while Duvivier (12.4 rpg), Morrow (10.5 rpg), and Cunningham (8.6 rpg) rank 1-3-5 in rebounding. Morrow also leads the league in field goal percentage (63.8 pct.) while Gordon senior Noah Szilagyi shoots a league-high 48 percent from downtown.
The winner of the contest will receive the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Championship game. The loser will then wait to see if they receive an at-large bid when the tournament field is announced on Monday. The top-seeded Nichols College men’s basketball team has advanced to the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championship for the third-consecutive season and will entertain No. 2 Gordon College Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. at the Hart Center on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross.
The Bison (24-2) – who began the week No. 15 in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll – advanced to the championship by virtue of an 87-79 win over No. 5 Western New England University Thursday night at the Nichols Athletic Center. Freshman Jaekwon Spencer came off the bench to post 15 points and 10 rebounds while junior Jerome Cunningham battled foul trouble all night yet filled the stat sheet with 17 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks, and three dimes.
The Fighting Scots (23-4), meanwhile, shot 68 percent from the floor in their 103-89 win over No. 3 Roger Williams at the Bennett Center last night. Senior Eric Demers poured in 34 points while classmate Garrisson Duvivier netted 28 as he became the college’s all-time leader in scoring.
The two schools will be meeting for the third time this season with each having won on the other’s home court. The Fighting Scots secured a 76-72 win in Dudley back on January 5 behind 32 points from Demers. The Bison shot just 37 percent from the field during that contest as both senior Marcos Echevarria and junior DeAnte Bruton – the top two scorers for head coach Scott Faucher – combined to shoot 12-of-38 (24.0 percent).
In the rematch less than 10 days ago in Wenham, Mass., Bruton dropped in a team-high 27 points and sophomore Matt Morrow recorded a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds in a 107-93 win. Duvivier and Demers combined for 66 points in the loss, which guaranteed the Bison home court advantage throughout the playoffs.
Saturday’s championship contest will mark the 46th all-time meeting between the two programs with the Bison holding a 25-20 lead, having won nine of the last 10 contests. The two played a classic CCC Championship contest five years ago in Dudley when the Fighting Scots stormed back from a 17-point second-half deficit to defeat the top-seeded Bison, 69-65. In that contest, CCC Defensive Player of the Year Hans Miersma racked up 15 points and 12 rebound as Gordon – down 56-39 with 10:32 remaining in the second half – closed the game on a 30-9 run to capture the conference crown.
Both teams feature top-end talent on both end of the floor. Demers (23.4 ppg) and Echevarria (20.0 ppg) rank second and fifth in the CCC in scoring, respectively, while Duvivier (12.4 rpg), Morrow (10.5 rpg), and Cunningham (8.6 rpg) rank 1-3-5 in rebounding. Morrow also leads the league in field goal percentage (63.8 pct.) while Gordon senior Noah Szilagyi shoots a league-high 48 percent from downtown.
The winner of the contest will receive the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Championship game. The loser will then wait to see if they receive an at-large bid when the tournament field is announced on Monday.