MILTON, Mass. (1/4/24) – In their return to conference play, the Nichols College men's basketball team pulled away late to defeat Curry College, 93-88 on the road at Katz Gymnasium.

The Bison, now with wins in three of their last four games, stand at 5-6 (2-2 CNE) overall on the season.

Javen Flowers-Smith delivered his 7^th 20-plus point performance in the win for Nichols, scoring 25 points with six assists, six steals and two rebounds. Ryan Savoy scored 16 points in the effort, along with hauling down five boards, while Jason Peters scored a career-best 14 points with three helpers. Olivier St. Louis and Luke Chapman each scored 12 points, both of which were personal bests, with St. Louis leading the team with seven rebounds. As a team, the Bison shot 30-of-58 (51.7%) from the field, which was their second highest shooting performance this season.

The Bison opened the first half with a comfortable 14-8 lead over the Colonels, but Curry quickly answered with a 12-5 run to take a one-point lead at 20-19. Through the midway point of the half, Nichols was once more able to gain control of the lead thanks to back-to-back threes from Ethan Minarik and St. Louis, which then later grew to as many as 14 points on a Flowers-Smith jumper with 3:54 left. Despite the cushion, Curry attempted to stage a second comeback effort, but still trailed the Bison by double figures entering the second half.

In the second, Curry managed to bring the score back to under 10 points through the first few minutes, but just as quickly fell further behind as another pair of threes from Chapman and Peters brought the score to 62-46 Nichols. As was the case in the first half, Curry refused to go quietly, as they slowly battled back from 16 points down to 76-76 with 5:23 to play, before then taking the lead on a pair of free throws 00:29 later. A dunk by Simon Percy then kicked off a 9-0 spurt by the Bison, transitioned into more back-and-forth play between the two sides, resulting in the five point win for Nichols at the end.  

The Bison will continue conference play on Tuesday, January 7^th with a 7:30 PM tip off against the University of Hartford (4-7, 2-2 CNE) at the Nichols Athletic Center.