DUDLEY, Mass. – Senior captain Matt Langadas (Sebago, Maine) scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half to help the Nichols College men's basketball team rally past Salve Regina University 55-51 in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action Saturday afternoon at the Nichols Athletic Center.
Junior captain Christian Horton (Rutland, Mass.) filled the stat sheet with 17 points, seven rebounds, six steals, and three assists as the Bison climbed above the .500 mark at 4-3 on the season and remained perfect in conference play (2-0). Junior captain Irving Eggleston (East Lyme, Conn.) chipped in with seven points, five steals and four rebounds.
Freshman Adam Quinlan (East Walpole, Mass.) paced the Seahawks (3-5, 0-2 CCC) with 12 points while freshman Bryce Boggs (Hyde Park, Mass.) chipped in with 10 points, six rebounds and a pair of dimes. Graduate student Scott St. Lawrence (Litchfield, Mass.) snared a game-high 14 rebounds and added eight points.
After rallying from a 15-point second-half deficit to defeat Roger Williams in the conference opener on Wednesday, the Bison once again found themselves trailing by double digits at the half (33-20). Nichols led 17-12 just past the midway point of the half behind seven points from Eggleston, but the Seahawks closed the half on a 21-3 run. Quinlan and junior Chris O'Keefe (Lexington, Mass.) finished with eight points apiece.
The Bison outscored the Seahawks 27-8 over the first 13 minutes of the second half to grab a 47-41 lead. Langadas sparked the run with 10 points – including a pair of triples – while Horton canned a pair of three's en route to scoring eight points during the run. Back-to-back layups from Quinlan and St. Lawrence made it a two-point game at 49-47 with 3:38, but the Seahawks missed their next four shots while the Bison sank 4-of-5 from the charity stripe to seal the win.
"We're finishing games very strong, but we need to do a much better job with our starts," said Nichols head coach Tom Glynn. "It's a credit to Christian and Matt for making some big shots and bailing us out. It was a much-improved effort, but we're going to have to put together 40 minutes if we want to beat a very good Gordon team Tuesday night."
Nichols overcame a poor-shooting first half (29 percent) to shoot 43 percent in the second half. Defensively, the Bison held the Seahawks to 32 percent shooting in the second half – a 14 percent drop from the opening half – and forced 22 turnovers. Salve Regina outrebounded the Bison 39-33, led by St. Lawrence's 14 and seven from Quinlan. Langadas grabbed 10 to lead Nichols.
"Defense has been a point of emphasis for us this year," said Glynn. "We want to get offense off of our defense. Salve did as great job against our press, so we had to go to our three-quarter court and full-court man, which enabled us to get steals. Our kids played really hard today and wanted to get this W."
Nichols plays at Gordon Tuesday at 7:30 in a rematch of last season's conference championship contest. The Seahawks host Roger Williams Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.