BEVERLY, Mass. — The Endicott men's basketball team fell to Nichols, 72-67, in a hard-fought Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) clash on Tuesday night at MacDonald Gymnasium. 

Jalen Echevarria (Lynn, Mass.) led the Gulls in scoring with 15 points (6-15 FG) and snatched five boards.

Elijah Kinney (Nashville, Tenn.) tallied 12 points (4-6 FG, 4-6 FT) and grabbed eight rebounds in the setback. 

Jeff Hill (Lynn, Mass.) contributed nine points and three dimes, while Cam Homsey (Windham, N.H.) chipped in with seven points and seven rebounds in 16 minutes off the bench. 

The opening ten minutes of play saw two ties and four lead changes as each team led by four points. 

Endicott created some separation via layups from Ty Vitko (Dover, N.H.), Parker McLaren (Newburyport, Mass.), and Matt Boen (Mansfield, Mass.) to lead 23-15 with 7:00 remaining in the opening stanza. 

Nichols chipped away at the Endicott advantage in the closing minutes before Mark Barrett (Brookline, Mass.) nailed a setback foul-line jumper as time expired to lead 35-33 at the half.

From there, the Bison began the second half with a 7-2 run to give the visitors a 49-43 advantage with 16:16 left to play.

Meanwhile, Nichols gained its largest lead of 10 points (59-49) with 7:32 to play in the final frame. Endicott was held to one field goal in 7:06 of action (13:02-6:36) before an 8-0 spurt to cut the deficit to 59-57. Echevarria spearheaded the burst with six points. 

With 1:59 to play, Nichols led 67-62. Nichols guard Dominic Mello (Wareham, Mass.) nailed a nifty runner in the lane to extend the lead to 69-62. 

On the ensuing possession, Vitko netted a left-wing trifecta to cut Nichols' advantage to 69-65. The Bison later went one for two at the line to make it a two-possession game (70-65). 

With 26 seconds to play, Barrett completed two freebies, but Mello came back on the other end and made it a two-possession contest to seal the road victory for the Bison.  

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• The Gulls are 5-2 at The Nest.
• Nichols leads the all-time series, 23-21.
• Entering tonight's contest, Endicott is sixth in DIII with 18.7 dimes per game and slotted at 22nd in points per game with 85.5. 
• The Bison edged the Blue and Green on the glass, 46-40.
• Each team recorded 18 bench points. 
• The Gulls' defense forced 14 Nichols turnovers which converted to 10 points on the other end.

WHAT'S NEXT

Endicott (10-4, 5-1 CCC) visits Western New England on Saturday, January 13 at 3:00 PM. Nichols (11-3, 5-1 CCC) travels to Suffolk on Saturday at 3:00 PM. 

For the latest on Endicott Athletics, follow the Gulls on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

(Photo Credit - Leanna Puccio '24)