DUDLEY, Mass. (12/6/23) - Junior Dominic Mello led Nichols with 21 points onas the Bison dropped a 68-66 conference tilt to Western New England in the Nichols Athletic Center on Tuesday night. 
 
With the result, Nichols drops to 6-2 (1-1 CCC) as the visiting Golden Bears advances to 6-3 (2-1 CCC) overall. 
 
In a game that featured seven lead changes and nine ties, the Golden Bears held the largest first half lead at 27-22 with just 4:04 remaining in the back-and-forth affair on the evening. The Bison then went on a 14-5 run that featured nine-straight points and a steal from Mello with a good layup by Jason Ofcarcik in the waning seconds to go into the intermission leading 36-32.
 
WNE finished the first stanza shooting 12-of-22 from the floor and 3-of-7 from beyond the arc as the Bison hit 15-of-35 from the field and just 3-of-15 from three-point territory. 
 
The Golden Bears regained the lead and some after going on a 19-5 run with 14 points coming from WNE's duo of Gavin Greene and to mark the largest lead of the contest, 51-41, with 11:35 remaining. Mello and Tavon Jones (rattled off 13-straight points for the Bison to bring the contest to a one-possession contest with just over eight minutes in regulation. 
 
Ofcarcik and Jones added three consecutive buckets to take a 65-63 lead at the 2:28 mark before Mike Resnick knocked down a three-pointer to retake the lead at 66-65 with just 38 seconds left. 
 
A Nate Kasper foul sent Jones to the line as the senior guard and went 1-for-2 at the charity strike to knot up the game at 66-66. WNE then settled play before finding an open Greene for the go-ahead layup with 1.6 left. Nichols called back-to-back timeouts in an attempt to send the game into overtime but the play was broken up for a 68-66 result. 
 
The Bison will head to Rhode Island College for a non-conference tilt in Providence next Monday at 5pm.