Recap
Senior Marcos Echevarria and junior DeAnte Bruton combined to score 63 points and help the Nichols College men's basketball team capture its third-straight Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championship with a 105-90 win over Gordon College Saturday evening at the Hart Center on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross.

Echevarria drained seven three-pointers and finished with 31 points, nine dimes, and five rebounds while Bruton knocked down five 3-pointers, went 5-of-5 from the line, and closed the game with 32 points, five assists, five rebounds, and four steals. The Bison (25-2) – who entered the contest No. 15 in this week's D3hoops.com poll – scored 54 points in the paint and turned 21 Gordon turnovers into 25 points. Nichols becomes the fourth school to win three-straight CCC Championships, joining Anna Maria (1990-92), Colby-Sawyer (2001-03), and Endicott (2004-06).
 
The Bison also dominated the glass, finishing with a 44-36 edge behind 12 from sophomore Matt Morrow and nine from junior Jerome Cunningham. Morrow finished with 16 points on 8-of-12 shooting while Cunningham netted 12 points and collected three steals. The Bison's fifth starter, sophomore Nate Tenaglia, notched four points, four rebounds, and two steals in 29 minutes.
 
Senior Garrison Duvivier led the Fighting Scots (23-5) with 26 points to go with eight rebounds, eight assists, three steals, and three blocked shots in just 28 minutes. Junior Eric Demers canned six 3-pointers and finished with 24 points, but he also committed eight turnovers. Gordon shot 52 percent from the field – including 12-of-24 from downtown.
 
The first nine minutes of the game featured seven lead changes before Echevarria's first three-pointer of the game put NC ahead for good at 19-16. Gordon cut its deficit to three with 6:41 on the clock before a 20-7 run by the Bison pushed their lead to 16 at 46-30. Echevarria sank four three-pointers during the run, and the Bison (25-2) closed the half with a nine-point lead (48-39).
 
Back-to-back three's from Duvivier and Demers in the opening minutes of the second half helped Gordon climb to within three points at 50-47. A quick 7-0 run from the Bison – highlighted by an Echevarria triple – got the lead back to 10 for Nichols.
 
The Fighting Scots made one last push and cut their deficit to seven on a three from senior Jake Haar with 10 minutes on the clock, but four points from both Morrow and Bruton pushed the lead to 15 points with less than six minutes remaining. The lead swelled to as many as 18 points when Morrow threw down a dunk with 3:22 on the clock.
 
Three things you need to know...

-Today's contest marked the 46th all-time meeting between Nichols College and Gordon College. The Bison have won 10 of the last 11 contests and lead the series, 26-20.

-With seven three-pointers today, Echevarria now has 464 career triples – more than NBA Star J.J. Redick sank in four years at Duke (457 from 2002-06).

-Echevarria became the CCC's all-time leading scorer in the second half of the contest, surpassing John Patraitis, who scored 2,434 points at Anna Maria from 1995-98. Echevarria has 2,440 career points.
 
Quote
"I'm really happy for our guys. They earned it tonight. We battled on both ends and were really unselfish offensively." –Nichols head coach Scott Faucher
 
Next game
NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament – TBA