The Nichols College men’s basketball team has earned the fifth seed in the The Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship Tournament, making its fourth appearance in the last five seasons under 11th year Head Coach Dave Sokolnicki. The Bison (14-10, 7-6) will travel to fourth-seeded Colby-Sawyer (14-11, 7-6) on Tuesday, February 23, for a 7:00 p.m. quarterfinal round game at the Hogan Sports Center in New London, N.H.
Tickets for the game will be available at the Hogan Sports center and are $4 adults and $2 for students and children under 12. Tickets will go on sale at 6 p.m. Fans who cannot make the trip can follow online with free live stats.
Nichols will look for its first TCCC tournament victory since the 2002-03 season, when they earned a trip to face Colby-Sawyer in the semifinals. Tuesday’s game marks the fourth time the Bison have faced the Chargers in TCCC tournament play. All games have occurred in New London, N.H., with Colby-Sawyer holding a 3-0 series lead. The two teams last faced each other TCCC tournament in 2004, a 73-55 Chargers victory. The Bison are 2-8 overall in their last 10 meetings with the Chargers, and in their regular season matchup this year, the Chargers were victorious, 82-73, in New London.
Nichols is led by four players in double-digit scoring, including its trio of senior captains: forward Ryan Wilcox (West Granby, Conn.), and guards Bryan Riley (West Boylston, Mass.) and Chris Paquin (Barre, Mass.). Sophomore forward Pete Atkins (Gainesville, Fla.) leads the effort with 13.0 points in just 23.4 minutes per game, adding 5.2 rebounds. His team-leading 39.1% average from three-point range has helped Nichols to a 35% team average – the third best mark in the league, right behind Colby-Sawyer’s 35.3% clip. Wilcox’s is firing the league’s third-best average from the floor at 54.8%, and is averaging 12.9 points per game while adding almost a block per game. Riley is the key playmaker as the primary ball carrier and has dished 3.95 assists to go with 12.8 points per game. Paquin is a mainstay on the floor, logging 33.9 minutes per game while leading the team with 5.8 rebounds to go with 12.8 points.
The defensive effort of sophomore guard Michael Salis (Pelham, N.H.), who ranks second on the team with 28 steals in 24 games cannot go unnoticed, and Sokolnicki’s incoming class has added considerable depth to the bench with forward Kyle Mascilak (Sparta, N.J.) averaging 8.1 points and 4.1 rebounds while shooting 47.7% in 21 minutes a game, guard Justin Kuntz (Wallingford, Conn.) adding in an element of speed and ability to drive to the net, and guard Steve Galgano (Ansonia, Conn.) cracking the starting lineup after being sidelined with injury for the first half of the season.
Colby-Sawyer has the second highest-scoring offense in the league at 76.7 points per game, led by Jon Chaloux’s 17.9 points per game average. He’s firing 43.4% from the floor and has recorded 103 of his 447 points on the year at the free throw line on 83.1% shooting (103-124). He is the team’s top rebounder at 6.8 per game, and also leads the team in blocks (38), steals (36), Jason Chevrefils is right behind with 14 points per game on 48.3% shooting, and in conference has fired over 50%. David Rosso and Will Bardaglio also average in double-digit scoring, with 11.6 and 11.2 per game respectively. Corey Willis rounds out the starting five as the top playmaker with 5.88 assists per game.
Nichols has already played the spoiler several times this season, snapping five-game win streaks of both Western New England College and most recently Wentworth on a big second-half rally. The Bison face the tougher task of playing on the road where they have a 4-7 overall record and a 1-6 ledger in conference play. Nichols’ only TCCC road win this season came on February 9 at Wentworth. In the friendlier confines of their home court, the Bison are 9-2 overall and a staggering 6-0 in conference games this season.
TCCC tiebreaking procedures were utilized to seed the five teams with 7-6 conference records -- Colby-Sawyer, Nichols, University of New England (UNE), Western New England (WNEC) and Endicott. In conference games played among the five 7-6 teams, Colby-Sawyer compiled a 3-1 record, compared to a 2-2 mark for Nichols, UNE and Endicott, and a 1-3 record for WNEC. Colby-Sawyer earned the #4 seed, while the remaining four teams returned to step one.
Of the four remaining teams, Nichols and UNE both posted 2-1 records in games played among that quartet, and Nichols earned the #5 seed via a head-to-head win vs. UNE in the teams’ lone conference matchup.
The winner of Tuesday’s quarterfinal game will face the winner of #1 Gordon and #8 Endicott on Thursday, February 25 at the site of the higher seed. Semifinal winners will square off for the conference championship on Saturday, February 27 at 7:00 p.m. at the site of the higher seed.
Full TCCC Release