BEVERLY, Mass. (Jan. 12) –Endicott had four players finish the night with double figures as the Gulls ground out a The Commonwealth Coast Conference victory over Nichols College, 92-76, on Tuesday night. The win improves the Blue and Green to 6-7 overall and 1-1 in league play, while the Bison fall to 7-5 and 0-2 in the TCCC.
Tuesday’s tilt featured 43 fouls and turnovers; however the lead only changed hands on two occasions. Endicott opened the night with a 4-0 advantage, only to have Nichols rattle of an 8-0 run that featured back-to-back 3-pointers by sophomore Pete Atkins (Gainesville, Fla.). The Gulls would fight their way back to even (10-10) and then blew open the half with a dominating 33-10 spurt over an 11-minute period to take a convincing 43-20 advantage. The Gulls cruised into halftime leading 47-30.
The Bison began chipping away at the 17-point deficit as Atkins dialed in from deep on consecutive possessions to start the second half. Nichols chipped the lead down to eight (50-42), however Endicott responded with six unanswered points to push the lead back to 14. The lead would hang between nine and 13 points for much of the remainder of the contest, as each side saw several trips to the free throw line in the game’s final 10 minutes of play.
The Endicott bench outscored Nichols’ reserves at a 58-20 clip, while also topping the Bison in second chance points, 14-4. The Gulls had 35 rebounds on the evening - including 10 on the offensive end - compared to Nichols’ 24 total boards and only five on the offensive glass.
Nichols got a game-high 29 points from Atkins. Bryan Riley (West Boylston, Mass.) had 14 points and three assists while Justin Kuntz (Wallingford, Conn.) posted 10 points. Chris Paquin (Barre, Mass.) added nine to bring him within 19 of the 1,000-point mark of his career.
Junior Chris Galbraith came just one rebound shy of a double-double, as he finished the night with 20 points and nine boards. Lance Greene had 17 points and dished out four assists, while Tanner McEntee had 13 points and seven rebounds in the win. Senior guard Bobby Montrond shot 4-of-5 from the field (10 points) and notched five assists in 26 minutes.
Endicott gets back to work on Saturday when the Gulls travel to Springfield, Mass. to meet TCCC foe Western New England College for a 3:00 p.m. showdown with the Golden Bears. Nichols hosts Fitchburg State on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.
Story courtesy Endicott Sports Information
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