DUDLEY, Mass. – Junior guard Colin Johnson (El Dorado Hills, Calif.) led six players in double-digit scoring with a career-high 19 points as the Wentworth Institute of Technology men's basketball team defeated host Nichols, 92-84, in Commonwealth Coast Conference action Saturday afternoon. The Leopards, who won their season-high fifth game in a row, move into second place in the league standings as they improve to 14-6 overall and 10-4 in conference games. Nichols drops its second in a row to fall to 9-12 overall and 7-7 in league games.
Marlon Bennett (Stratford, Conn.) led Nichols for the second-straight game, scoring 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting in just 25 minutes off the bench. Jalen Graham (Ansonia, Conn.) added 15 points and a game-high eight assists. Matt Langadas (Casco, Maine) scored 16 on 7-of-9 shooting, and Ryan Sheehan (Attleboro, Mass.) had a game-high seven steals to go with four assists, nine points and four rebounds.
Johnson was 3-for-4 from three-point range and pulled down seven rebounds to go with three steals. Nico Donato (Glastonbury, Conn.) added 18 while hitting a perfect 7-for-7 at the line. Adam Dombrowski (Dunstable, Mass.) chipped in with 16 points and five assists, and Derek Mayo (Casco, Maine) dished six assists and had four steals to go with 14 points.
The first half featured 16 lead changes on fast-paced action. Nichols led by as many as four on a Bennett layup at the 13-minute mark, but neither team could make a run. Johnson hit a three-pointer to give the Leopards a 43-40 lead with four seconds left in the first half, from which the visitors never looked back.
Wentworth started the second half on a 9-0 run to build up a 12-point lead before Langadas converted a Justin Kuntz (Wallingford, Conn.) dish into a reverse layup to put the Bison on the board at the 15:40 mark. A Bennett three-pointer followed a pair of free-throws from Michael Salis (Nashua, N.H.) to cut the Leopards' lead to six past the midway point, but five straight points from Johnson put the visitors back ahead, 61-50.
Nichols traded buckets for free throws down the stretch, but the two for one approach only got the Bison as close as eight, for the Leopards hit all 10 of their final attempts at the line.
Bennett and Graham led the Bison bench to an impressive 47 points. Nichols also dominated the paint with a 44-36 point advantage. Wentworth, however, shot 43.8% from three-point range (7-16) in the game, and outrebounded the Bison at a 34-27 clip. Both squads fired over 53% from the floor.
Nichols is back in action Wednesday night in a 7:30 p.m. home game against Roger Williams, while Wentworth hosts Salve Regina the same night at 7:30 p.m. in a battle of the top teams in the conference.
(Release Courtesy of Nichols College Sports Information)
