DUDLEY, Mass. (2/17/23) – The seniors came up big on Senior Day for the Nichols College men's basketball team as the program signed off on the 2023-24 regular season with a 93-90 victory over Roger Williams University on Saturday afternoon inside the Nichols Athletic Center.

Having already claimed the regular season championship earlier this week, the top-seeded Bison finish up with 16 consecutive wins and a 22-3 (15-1 CCC) overall record. Roger Williams, with the loss, completed their respective season with an 11-14 (8-8 CCC) record.

With a bye through the quarterfinal round as the No. 1 seed, the Bison will host the winner of Tuesday's No. 5 Roger Williams University at No. 4 Wentworth Institute of Technology for the CCC semifinals on Thursday, February 22^nd. The official 2023-24 CCC Tournament bracket can be viewed here.

Senior Tavon Jones led the Bison with a team-high 31 points on 11-of-21 shooting, marking his fourth outing this season with a minimum 30 points scored. Fellow senior Nate Duckworth tied his career-high 17 points while also collecting setting a new personal record with 12 rebounds, picking up his first collegiate double-double. Junior guard Dominic Mello also had a standout performance with 24 points scored, while freshman forward Jason Ofcarcik added 10 points in the effort. From the field, the Bison shot 34-of-64 (53.1%) with 10-of-25 (40.0%) success from three-point range, scoring more than half of their points from the paint.

The game was close from the opening tip, with Nichols holding an 18-17 scoring edge through the first 10 minutes of play. Later down the stretch, Nichols managed to pull ahead by five points thanks to an 8-1 run capped off by a Jason Peters layup, before pushing it to nine points on a Mello triple with 2:04 remaining in the half. Through the final minute, Roger Williams managed one final jumper on a fastbreak play, but found themselves still trailing the host Bison, 43-34 at the half.

In the second half, the Hawks presented the Bison with a challenge. After trailing by as many as 14 points, Roger Williams battled back with a late 11-2 run to shred the Bison lead down to three points, 81-78 with 4:08 left to play. However, the Bison quickly got back on track as a Duckworth layup was promptly followed with a Mykel Derring triple, stretching the lead back out to eight points at 86-78 with 1:36 remaining. The Hawks continued to pester the Bison all the way up to the final seconds of the half, but a final pair of Mello free throws proved to be enough as the Bison took the win, 93-90.

Coverage for the semifinal round is slated for a 7:00 PM start, right back at the Nichols Athletic Center.