NEWTON, MA – The Lasell College men's basketball team fell victim to cold shooting in the first half and never recovered in a 94-83 non-conference loss to visiting Nichols College on Thursday night. The Bison shot 57% for the game and won the battle on the boards by out rebounding the Lasers 40-27. Sophomore Ryan Sheehan (North Attleboro,MA) was 10-19 from the field and 15-18 from the free throw line en route to his game high 37 points.
The teams traded buckets for the first ten minutes of the half. Then the Bison went on a run, and when Sheehan hit a layup with 3:33 left, that capped off a 10-0 run to give them a 37-22 lead.
Nichols would continue to pull away in the opening stanza and eventually take a 50-26 advantage into halftime. The Lasers had trouble getting shots to fall in the first half as they shot 30.8% on 8-26 from the field, including 0-8 from downtown.
The Bison continued shooting well into the second half, stretching their lead to 73-46 when Justin Kuntz (Wallingford, CT) hit a layup with 11:38 remaining. Lasell then went on a run of their own, using some high pressure defense and creating turnovers to help them to an 18-4 run over the next 6 minutes, cutting the Nichols lead to 77-63 with 4:28 to play.
The hosts would continue to chip away and when Senior captain Javon Williams (Mattapan, MA) hit a layup in transition off a Nichols turnover they cut the Nichols lead to 9 at 81-72 with just over two minutes to play. The deficit proved to be too big to overcome as the Bison sank important free throws down the stretch to seal the victory and improve to 2-0. The Lasers fall to 1-1 on the young season.
Sheehan had four rebounds and four assists to go along with his 37 points. Freshman Marlon Bennett (Stratford, CT) was in double-figures for Nichols as well with 13 points.
Williams was the high scorer for Lasell with 29 points on 14-20 from the field and had 8 rebounds. Juniors Sonny Mello (Fall River, MA) and Sean Bertanza (Seymour, CT) were also in double figures with 13 and 11 points respectively.
Lasell College will look to rebound when they travel to Rhode Island College for a non-conference game. Tip-off is set for 1:00pm. Nichols College will continue their season on November 28 with a home contest against Fitchburg State University.