BRISTOL, R.I. – In the team's only televised home game of the season, the Roger Williams University Men's Basketball team picked up its first conference win of the season, defeating Western New England College 55-44 Tuesday evening. The broadcast of the game will air on Friday, January 16 at 8:00 on Cox Sports.

The Hawks opened the game with a stout defense and strong offense. RWU scored the first eight points of the game before the Golden Bears responded with a bucket of their own. From that point, a 13-0 run quickly made it a 21-2 game in favor of the Hawks. WNEC continued to fight, closing out the half on a 17-9 run of its own to cut the deficit by eight, going into the half trailing 30-19.

RWU maintained the upper hand in the second half. The Hawks took a 20-point lead on an acrobatic reverse layup by Billy Barrett (Fairfield, Conn.). Despite the large deficit, the Golden Bears continued to fight its way back into the game. WNEC made it a 46-32 game with ten minutes to play and pulled within 11 with just over three minutes left. Yet WNEC was unable to get over the hump, never able to come within single digits as RWU earned the win.

Barrett scored 15 for the Hawks, hitting all three of his attempts from downtown. Pat Flanagan (Somerville, Mass.) scored eight points and grabbed eight boards, while Taylor Petruccelli (Stratford, Conn.) added eight points and five rebounds.

Matt Maynard led WNEC with 13 points, with Kyle Fredette chipping in with seven points and ten boards.

Roger Williams (5-8. 1-1 TCCC) plays Wentworth Institute of Technology Saturday at 3:00 p.m. while Western New England (3-9, 1-1 TCCC) travels to Endicott for a 3:00 p.m. game.