HARRISVILLE, R.I. – Junior captain Christian Horton (Rutland, Mass.) tallied 10 points, seven rebounds, and five assists in Nichols College's 77-68  at UNE Saturday afternoon in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) men's basketball action at Harold Alfond Arena.

Junior captain Irving Eggleston (East Lyme, Conn.) led all student-athletes with 22 points to go along with five boards and four dimes as the Bison improved to 18-5 (15-1 CCC) on the season. Senior captain Joe Gallant (Salem, N.H.) pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds while scoring six points and blocking a pair of shots.

Junior Devin Thompson (Winthrop, Mass.) and sophomore CJ Autry (Standish, Maine) each scored 16 points to pace the Nor'easters (6-17, 4-12 CCC), who put a scare into the first-place Bison when they grabbed an eight-point lead (49-41) early in the second half. Freshman Evrim Ozkan (Istanbul, Turkey) did not miss from the floor or the charity stripe to register 10 points, and classmate Drew Coveney (Londonderry, N.H.) posted eight points, five rebounds, and eight assists. Autry also had a team-best seven caroms and three steals.

Each school canned 45 percent of their field goal opportunities as the Bison (29-of-65) and Nor'easters (22-of-49) combined to go 19-of-47 from behind the arc (UNE: 8-of-21; NC 11-of-26). Nichols outrebounded UNE 38-31 and forced 19 turnovers.  

The hosts jumped out to a 6-0 start and still led by one (11-10) until sophomore Jared Thompson (Scituate, R.I.) came off the bench and canned a pair of triples to spark a 10-0 Nichols run. When the margin peaked at 11 (27-16), D. Thompson kept UNE close with 10 points in-a-row to shrink the gap to six points (32-26). The Bison were up 40-35 at intermission, with Eggleston at 14 points and D. Thompson scoring 13 for UNE.

Ozkan turned the Nor'easters first possession of the final stanza into points, kicking-off a 14-1 stretch that sent the Nor'easters to a 49-41 cushion at the 16:32 mark. UNE's rookie forward had all of his eight second-half points in the span.

Nichols countered right back with 10 unanswered in 1:48 – including six from Eggleston. After the home side leveled things at 51, Eggleston gave the visitors the lead for good with a jumper in the paint as NC quickly built a 60-51 margin.

The Nor'easters sliced the spread down to one (64-63) with 5:20 left, but a three from Thompson and a three-point play from Koumare pushed it to seven.

UNE got back within three (70-67), only to have senior captain Matt Langadas (Sebago, Maine) convert a three-point play of his own to all but seal the decision with 1:45 on the clock.

Nichols hosts Eastern Nazarene Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. UNE entertains Curry on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.