DUDLEY, Mass. — The Endicott men's basketball team was clipped by Nichols College, 92-87, Wednesday evening inside the Nichols Athletic Center in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action.
Nichols was able to build a 12-point advantage with 3:42 to play in the opening 20 minutes of action as Endicott did not manage a single lead in the half.
The Gulls trailed the Bison, 48-38, at halftime as Nichols' freshman guard DeAnte Bruton (New London, Conn.) amassed 29 of his career-high 38 points on the night in the first stanza.
Endicott began to claw its way back in the second half after playing catch-up for a majority of the game to take a one-point lead (79-78) with 4:38 to go for just its second lead of the night and managed its biggest edge—up by 2—with 4:11 remaining in the game.
Back-and-forth basketball down the stretch was the name of the game until senior forward Devin Stallings' (Waterbury, Conn.) and-one dunk at 1:34 was the exclamation point that fired up Nichols' bench and provided the lead (89-86) the Bison maintained the rest of the way capped off by free throws in the waning seconds.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- The loss for Endicott now evens things up with Nichols as the two teams sport identical records with three games remaining in the regular season.
- The Gulls came into the game receiving eight votes in the latest D3Hoops.com Week 10 Top 25 National Poll.
- Endicott shot lights out from beyond the arc (12-of-30) by making 10-of-20 early in the second half, compared to Nichols' 11 of 35 attempted.
- Senior guard Kamahl Walker (Worcester, Mass.), the reigning CCC Player of the Week, connected for 18 of his season-high 31 points in the first half to eclipse the previous season-high mark set this past Saturday at Gordon to go with his seven rebounds.
- Senior forward Daquan Sampson (Germantown, Md.) joined Walker in double figures with 18 points and six rebounds.
- Senior guard Max Motroni (West Warwick, R.I.) was held scoreless in the first half, but chipped in 10 points in the second half and matched Walker with seven rebounds for the team-lead.
- There were eight ties and six lead changes in this game.
FOR THE FOES
- Bruton broke his previous career-best of 36 points against Becker and now has six games scoring 30+ points this season, as well as 19 of the team's 22 games in double figures (12 games scoring at least 20 points) on the year to rank second on the team in scoring this season.
- Nichols' sophomore guard Marcos Echevarria (Lynn, Mass.) netted 18 points, while Stallings grabbed nine of his game-high 14 rebounds in the first half alone as he earned a double-double by adding 15 points.
NOTES
- The Gulls are 17-10 overall and 6-7 on the road in the all-time series against Nichols.
- Endicott has still won four of the past six meetings, including a 93-80 victory at home in the most recent meeting before today on Jan. 14, 2017 for the regular-season series split this year.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Gulls (17-5, 12-3 CCC) begins a three-game homestand to wrap up the regular season beginning with Roger Williams on Saturday, February 11th at 3:00 p.m.
Nichols (17-5, 12-3 CCC) travels Salve Regina on Saturday, February 11th at 1:00 p.m. For the latest on Endicott Athletics, follow the Gulls on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.