Men’s Basketball Falters at Gordon on New Year’s Eve, 83-73

WENHAM, Mass.- The Eastern Nazarene College men's basketball team dropped a New Year's Eve matchup at Gordon 83-73 Monday afternoon in the second-straight and 134th all-time meeting between the two squads.

The Lions move to 3-7 on the season with the setback while the Fighting Scots improve to 11-1 overall.

Garrett Crandell (Bristol, Tenn.) poured in a game-high 26 points as he drained six three-pointers on the day. Josh Rice (Hanson, Mass.) posted 11 points while Levi Grady-White (Springfield, Mass.) chipped in with nine points. Ricky Shearman (Acworth, Ga.) racked up six points, six rebounds, and seven assists.

The visitors grabbed an early five-point lead 2:19 into the game as Crandell canned his second trey, 10-5.

Eastern Nazarene's advantage swelled to nine points, 26-17, with 8:37 remaining in the first half on a bucket by Grady-White.

Gordon tallied 14 consecutive points to jump ahead 34-27 with 1:05 left to play in the opening frame.

The Lions responded with a three-pointer by Crandell followed by a put-back buzzer-beater by Shearman to cut the deficit to 34-32 at the intermission.

Eastern Nazarene shot 44.8% from the floor and 40% from beyond the arc in the first period. The Fighting Scots posted a field-goal percentage of 44.4% at the midway point of the game while sinking just 1-of-7 from three-point range.

The home side chalked up the first eight points of the second stanza to extend their lead to double-digits, 42-32, with 17:44 on the clock.

The guests pulled to within four with 11 minutes left to play in regulation as Crandell splashed his fifth three-ball of the game, 49-45.

Gordon widened the gap to 14 with 6:28 to go on a lay-in by Eric Demers, 66-52.

The Fighting Scots scored their final 10 points from the charity stripe in the final 2:08 of regulation to notch their 10th victory in a row.

The Lions concluded the contest with a field-goal percentage of 48.3% to go with 9-for-19 shooting from behind the arc. Gordon shot 47.2% from the floor and 30% from long distance.

Garrison Duvivier and Demers paced the hosts with 21 points each while Noah Szilagyi added 12 points.

Looking ahead, Eastern Nazarene treks to Northern Vermont-Lyndon January 3 for the final non-conference tune-up of the season.