Box Score BRISTOL, R.I.—The Roger Williams University Men's Basketball team fell to conference rival Nichols College 91-79 Tuesday night in Bristol, R.I., dropping their first game of the season.
 
The undefeated Hawks were fresh off a 107-76 win against the University of New England on Sunday. The 5-1 Bison were looking to hop to 3-0 in conference play after beating Gordon College 100-86 Saturday, December 2.
 
Prior to tip-off, Austin Coene (Tyngsborough, Mass.) was recognized and applauded for scoring his 1000^th career point Sunday.
 
Nichols got the board first with a three by Marcos Echevarria (Lynn, Mass.), but the Hawks responded with a layup by Nick Marini (Loudonville, N.Y.).
 
DeAnte Bruton (New London, Conn.) hit a three with just under 18 minutes left.
 
The pace of the beginning of the first half was so fast that Nichols' Tyler Dion (Barre, Mass.) ran right out of his shoe. He was able to pull himself together and hit a jumper with 14:30 left.
 
Drew Hart (Cheshire, Conn.) grabbed his own rebound and put it back up with 12:25 left to help close the deficit to four.
 
After a swished three by Daequon Antoine (Fort Hill, S.C.), the Bison put a full-court press on with just under 12 minutes left to go. Coene responded to the press with a layup at 11:20.
 
The Bison extended their lead to double digits with a layup by Josiah Kimball (Saint Johnsbury, Vt.) with nine and a half left in the first.
 
A layup by JJ Pfohl (Trumbull, Conn.) and a made free throw completed the three-point play which pulled the Hawks within seven.
 
Nichols picked up their seventh foul with seven and a half minutes left, which allowed the Hawks to step up to the line early in the half.
 
Jaylen Jennings (Norwalk, Conn.) grabbed his first points of the game with a three which cut the Bison's lead to two with seven minutes left. The Hawks tied it up on a Rich Pulgiese (Middlebury, Conn.) layup with six and a half minutes left.
 
Antoine quieted the home crowd by draining a three with six minutes left.
 
Conor O'Brien's (Sharon, Mass.) and-one layup and foul shot were his first three points of the game to give the Hawks the two-point lead.
 
Back-to-back three-pointers by the Bison in the final three minutes of the half gave them an eight-point lead.
 
The Bison carried the 45-36 lead into halftime. Antione led all scorers at the half with 17 while Marini led Roger with 11. Jennings had pulled down five rebounds and Jerome Cunningham (Westbury, N.Y.) and Kimball both had four for the Bison. Bruton finished the first half with five assists. Both teams were shooting over 50% from the field.
 
The Bison struck first in the second half with two made free throws by Cunningham to extend their lead to 11.
 
A Marini layup cut the Bison's lead back down to single digits with just over 17 minutes left.
 
The Bison began pulling away with a 15-point lead with 12 and a half left.
 
The Hawks had trouble finding momentum in the last part of the half. They were unable to string together baskets or stop the Bison from hitting the outside shot. The Hawks tried to get a last-minute spark with threes by Jake Heaton (Shelton, Conn.) and Jennings with less than a minute left and tight, half-court defense, but it was not enough to erase the lead the Bison secured going into halftime.
 
The Hawks were handed their first loss of the season by a score of 91-79. The Bison move to 6-1 in the regular season and 3-0 in conference play.
 
The Bison were dominant from behind the arch, hitting 50% of their 34 three-point attempts. Cunningham led in the rebounds category with nine and Jennings and O'Brien followed with eight. Echevarria and Antoine led both teams with 25 and 24 points, respectively. Coene led the Hawks with 21. Bruton finished the day with nine assists.
 
The Hawks will travel to North Dartmouth, Mass. Thursday to face UMass-Dartmouth in a nonconference matchup.