WENHAM, Mass. (2/14/24) – The Nichols College men's basketball team locked up the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) regular-season title, along with the top seed in the upcoming CCC Championship Tournament with a 90-80 victory over Gordon College on Wednesday night at Bennett Center.

The Bison now have wins in 15 straight games and stand at 21-3 (14-1 CCC) overall with one game remaining in the regular season. Gordon lost their fifth straight contest, falling to a 5-20 (2-14 CCC) mark on the season. For Nichols, it is their fourth consecutive season earning the top-seed outright, and 10^th in a row earning at least a share in the conference's top seed with the exclusion of the 2020-21 pandemic season.

For the Bison, there were plenty of stats to go around. Two players finished with double-doubles in the effort, with junior forward Deshaun Nettles pairing 17 points with 12 rebounds, and freshman Jason Ofcarcik scoring 16 points with 13 rebounds. Senior guard Tavon Jones led all floor players with 24 points on the evening, as well as nine rebounds. Junior guard Dominic Mello rounded out the list of double-figure scorers with 15 points. From the field, the Bison shot 46 percent (29-of-63), and held the rebounding edge over the Fighting Scots, 44-32.

Gordon built an 18-13 lead through the first 10 minutes of action but learned that the Bison would not go quietly as a Jones three-pointer trimmed their lead down to two points. Shortly after, with the score at 20-16 Gordon, Jones secured another trio of points from the free throw line after being fouled behind the arc, which was followed by a Nettles dunk to put Nichols ahead 21-20. The remainder of the half saw three more ties and four lead changes between the two teams, but back-to-back triples from Mello and senior Mykel Derring helped the Bison along to a close 37-35 lead at halftime.

The score continued to flip back-and-forth in the early stages of the second half. However, at 13:28, Nichols claimed the lead for good thanks to a Jones three-pointer, which spearheaded a 12-3 run. Down the stretch, the Nichols lead increased to as much as 11 points, with each of their final 14 points in the game coming from the charity stripe. Nichols went on to claim the win, 90-80.

The final game of the 2023-24 regular season will feature Roger Williams University (11-13, 8-7 CCC) for a 3:00 PM tipoff this Saturday, February 17^th. It will also be Senior Day for the program, with the action taking place right back at the Nichols Athletic Center.