MCLA Men fall in high scoring affair to Nichols College 96-93

Dudley, MA- The MCLA Trailblazer Men's basketball team placed four players in double figures, however it wasn't enough as host Nichols College made some key free throws down the stretch to hold off MCLA 96-93 this evening in Dudley, MA.  The Trailblazers suffer their second straight defeat and fall to 2-3 on the season.  Nichols improves to 3-2.

Ruben DelRosario poured in a career high 32 points for MCLA while adding 6 assists and 4 steals.  Paul Maurice had his best outing of the season with 19 points, while John Jones and Ramon Viches added 13 and 12 respectively. 

Nichols was paced by Ryan Sheehan's 24 points, 20 of which came after halftime.  Jalen Hurst scored 18 points, while Sam Horning added 17.  Other Bison in double figures were Marlon Bennett with 15 and Matt Langadas with 11.

The Trailblazers started out fast and held the lead the majority of the opening half.  MCLA raced out to an 11-2 lead out of the gates and stretched out to a 14 point lead on a number of occasions, the last of which was at 40-26 with 8:20 left in the half.  From there, Nichols made a run to get back in the game. 

They outscored MCLA 21-2 to close the half to take a five point lead into halftime.  The second half was a slugfest with each team trading blows and neither team holding more than a five point lead.  The back and forth affair saw its seventh tie of the night at 82 all following a Horning runner for Nichols.

The Bison recieved the biggest bucket of the night from Sheehan who drained a three pointer in front of the Nichols bench after turnover to give the hosts an 85-82 lead with 4:37 left.  Nichols would not trail again.

MCLA would get within a point on three separate occasions and had a chance late in the game.  After Sheehan connected on a pair of free throws with 19 seconds left to give Nichols a 93-89 lead, MCLA committed a costly turnover on the inbounds play.  Sheehan would connect on one of two to push to a five point lead with just 18 seconds left.

DelRosario drove the length of the floor to get within three and then Maurice stripped Sheehan and fed Anthony Barbosa for a layup with 6 seconds left to pull within a point.  Nichols' Sam Horning was fouled and calmly sank two critical free throws to finally put away the Trailblazers.

Both teams shot well as MCLA finished 55% from the floor while Nichols wasn't far behind at 52%.  After MCLA went without a free throw attempt in the opening twenty minutes, they were aided by a 19-23 performance in the second half.

The Trailblazers are back in action on Sunday night when they host crosstown foe Williams College at 6pm.