MILTON, Mass. – Nichols College used a strong first half to come away with a 97-69 victory over Curry College on Saturday afternoon in men's basketball action at the Katz Gymnasium on Senior Day. The Colonels honored its lone senior RJ Hadfield (Warwick, R.I. in a special pregame ceremony.
The Bison (5-5 overall) shot 42 percent in the first half and put up 45 points. Freshman Matt Lasalandra (Smithfield, R.I.) and senior Matt Morrow (Leicester, Mass.) led all scorers with 23 points apiece. Morrow also added 12 rebounds for the double-double performance. Freshman Bryson Andrews (Brockton, Mass.) and junior Jason O'Regan (Charlton, Mass.) rounded out the scorers in double figures with 17 and 10, respectively.
Freshman Asante Smith (Norfolk, Va.) paced the Colonels (0-8 overall) for the second straight game, tallying 21 points on 8-for-15 shooting and added six rebounds. Classmate JayQuan Leonard (Plymouth, Mass.) chipped in with 14 points, while freshman Joshua Vargas (Fairhaven, Mass.) and Hadfield contributed 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Nichols scored four straight points to open the game, but Curry would hang around. The Colonels would grab their largest lead after Smith knocked down a three to give Curry a 19-16 advantage. After the game became knotted at 25 with 5:30 remaining in the opening half, the Bison answered with 10 straight points to prompt a timeout by the Colonels.
Nichols took a 45-31 lead into the locker room at intermission. Lasalandra had 19 points at the break and shot 7-for-11 in the half, including 3-for-3 from deep. Leonard led Curry with 11 points.
A three-pointer from Morrow gave Nichols its largest lead of the night at 93-62. Curry later answered with a 5-0 run that cut the deficit to 26 at 93-67, but the Colonels would fall by the 28-point margin.
Nichols shot just under 49 percent for the game that included an 8-for-22 clip from beyond the arc. Curry checked in at 38 percent and went 9-for-32 from downtown.
This marked the final game of the season for both teams.
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