Men’s Basketball Pulls Away Late to Defeat Curry, 69-59

QUINCY, Mass.- The Eastern Nazarene College men's basketball team picked up a hard-fought 69-59 victory over Curry Saturday afternoon at the Lahue Physical Education Center.

The Lions climb to 6-8 on the season and 2-5 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference with the win. The Colonels slide to 1-14 overall and 0-8 in league competition.

Noah Cheney (Bend, Ore.) notched 17 points and added four assists and three rebounds. Josh Rice (Hanson, Mass.) finished with 15 points and three boards. David Lopez (Miami, Fla.) recorded 11 points, eight rebounds, and a pair of blocks on the day. Jacob Waldroop (Newland, N.C.) posted nine points, five assists, and four rebounds. Brenndan Rogers (Hanson, Mass.) tallied nine points and grabbed three boards off the bench.

The home side pushed ahead 17-12 with 7:12 remaining in the first half as Rogers canned a three-pointer.

The visitors leveled the score at 17-17 on a trey by Justin Kelley with 6:23 left to play in the opening frame.

The final five minutes of the first period saw the two teams combine for five ties with no lead extending past three points.

Eastern Nazarene and Curry headed into the halftime intermission deadlocked at 28-28.

The Lions shot 27.6% in the first half and connected on 30.8% of their three-point attempts. The Colonels sported a field-goal percentage of 34.5% at the break to go with 3-for-15 shooting from behind the arc.

Cheney and Rogers both poured in seven points in the opening frame while Lopez and Waldroop each recorded five points.

Curry started the second stanza with a 9-2 run as Jeff Card, RJ Hadfield, and Jared Thorpe-Johnson all sank three-pointers to give the visitors a 37-30 edge less than two minutes into the half.

Eastern Nazarene battled back and reclaimed the lead with 10:45 left to play in regulation as Rice drilled a trey from the right wing, 51-49.

The Lions stretched the margin to 62-52 with 4:17 to go in the game on a three-pointer by Cheney from the right corner.

Eastern Nazarene concluded the contest with a field-goal percentage of 39.7% while shooting 29.2% from long range. The Colonels shot 36.2% from the floor on the afternoon and drained 7-of-26 from beyond the three-point line.

Up next, the Lions welcome CCC frontrunner Nichols January 16.