Nichols Bison Push Past Gulls In 86-77 CCC Showdown

BEVERLY, Mass.-  Junior forward Daquan Sampson (Germantown, Md.) registered his seventh double-double of the season in the Endicott men's basketball team's 86-77 loss to visiting Nichols in a Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) tilt Wednesday night inside MacDonald Gymnasium.

The first half saw Nichols hit 13-of-36 from the floor, while Endicott made just 6-of-23 field goals, but the Gulls managed to convert 75 percent of their free throws (15-20) to crawl back with six sets of free throws down the stretch after trailing by as much as 13 (22-9) on junior forward Devin Stallings' (Waterbury, Conn.) trey with 8:11 to play in the opening stanza.

Nichols headed into the locker room up 33-29, with senior guard Irving Eggleston (East Lyme, Conn.) pacing the Bison with seven points and six boards. Endicott's junior guards Kamahl Walker (Worcester, Mass.) and Max Motroni (West Warwick, R.I.) tied for a midway point lead with nine points apiece.

The Gulls battled back in the second half and tied the score twice, at 51-51 and 54-54 at the 11:58 and 10:50 marks, respectively, but never grabbed the lead.

Motroni's layup with 6:49 to play made it 59-58, but that's as close as the Gulls would get the rest of the way as the Bison won their seventh game in a row.

Walker poured in 19 points in the second half to up his game total to 28 points to lead all scorers on 9-of-19 from the field, including 2-of-9 from downtown and 8-of-9 from the charity stripe.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• Sampson recorded his seventh double-double (second consecutive) of the season as he tallied 14 points and a team-leading 11 rebounds.
• Motroni chipped in 14 points with three assists and six rebounds rebounds, while junior guard Chris Lipscomb (West Springfield, Mass.) grabbed eight rebounds to go with six points, two blocks and one steal.
• Walker has 12 games this season with 20+ points.
• The Gulls out-rebounded the Bison, 41-37.

FOR THE FOES

• Stallings led the way with 20 points on 6-of-11 from the field, including 5-of-9 from three-point land and hit 3-of-4 free throws and grabbed five rebounds.
• Freshman guard Marcos Echevarria (Lynn, Mass.) added 19 points as he hit four three-pointers and made all five free throws attempted.
• The Bison placed five student-athletes in double figures, as senior guard Gustave Koumare's (Harlem, N.Y.) 15, junior forward Nate Tardy's (Moodus, Conn.) (11) and senior guard Christian Horton's (Rutland, Mass.) 10 joind Stallings and Echevarria.
• Eggleston brought down a team-leading nine rebounds.
• The Bison extended their win streak to seven games.
• Nichols' largest lead of the game was 13 points at the 8:11 mark of the first half.

NOTES

• Endicott is 15-9 all-time and 10-3 at home against Nichols dating back to the 1999-2000 season.
• In the most previous meeting before tonight, Endicott edged Nichols, 82-78 in overtime in Dudley, Mass. on Dec. 2, 2015, as Sampson scored a career-high 23 points with a career-high 19 rebounds.

WHAT'S NEXT

Both teams return to action on Saturday, January 30 at 3:00 p.m. as the Gulls (10-8, 7-4 CCC) travel to Salve Regina University, while Nichols College (15-3, 9-2 CCC) plays at the University of New England. 

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