Box Score SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--The Western New England University men's basketball team picked up its first Commonwealth Coast Conference victory in a big way on Saturday afternoon by edging visiting Eastern Nazarene College, 79-76, at the Alumni Healthful Living Center. The Golden Bears snap a six-game losing streak to improve to 3-9 overall and 1-5 in the CCC. With the loss, the Lions (10-2, 4-2) were knocked from atop the CCC standings and now sit in second place with four other teams one game behind co-leaders Endicott and Nichols colleges, which both won today.

The Golden Bears received double-doubles from senior Dennis Rinaldi, who posted game highs of 22 points and 17 rebounds, and Musa Elsir, who notched season highs of 18 points and 12 rebounds. Senior Ryan Mickiewicz chipped in 11 points and a game-best six assists against only two turnovers.

Justin Wagner and Jaylen Owens paced Eastern Nazarene with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

Western New England, led the entire first half, jumped out to a 9-0 bulge--bookended by 3-pointers from Nick DeFeo and Mickiewicz--in the first 1 minute and 24 seconds after the opening tip. Building as much as an 11-point lead at the 3:21 mark before the intermission, WNE went into the locker room up 32-24.

The Golden Bears made 28 of 50 field goal attempts for a season-best .560 percentage, but their season-worst 25 turnovers kept Eastern Nazarene in the game by converting those into 28 free points for the Lions.

After a Kevin Wilkes lay-in gave WNE a 10-point lead to start the second half, Eastern Nazarene went on a 9-2 run to close within 36-33 at 15:54 to play.

Western New England's response was a 10-4 run to go up nine at 46-37 with 13:55 to play. Elsir scored six points and Rinaldi had nine during the run.

Trailing 56-48 with 8:21 to go, ENC went on a 12-4 streak in a 3-minute span that started with a "3" by Jeremy Wagner and ended by his brother, Justin, knotting the score at 60-all (5:24).

Western New England was able to push the lead back up to seven points, 69-62, on Mickiewicz's lay-in at the 3:03 mark.

After the Golden Bears went up 75-65 with 32 seconds to go, the Lions made one more push that the Golden Bears turned aside. Western New England, which is shooting just 61.5 percent from the free throw line on the season, made 7 of its last 10 free throws to hold off the Lions.

Christian Lynch of Eastern Nazarene hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from beyond half-court that accounted for the final three-point outcome.

Western New England dominated the glass by outrebounding ENC 48 to 33, outscoring the Lions in the paint 42-22.

Western New England will be back in action on Wednesday (5:30 p.m.) when Wentworth invades the AHLC for another CCC contest.