WENHAM, Mass. - Meeting for the third time this year, Gordon College Men's Basketball topped No. 3 Roger Williams University with a thrilling 103-89 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Semifinal victory in front of a deafening home crowd at the Bennett Center this evening. The Fighting Scots advance to the CCC title game and will face top-seeded Nichols College on Saturday, February 23 at Holy Cross. Tip-off is set for 4:30 p.m.
For the Fighting Scots, Eric Demers and Garrisson Duvivier both shot 76.5 percent from the field, scoring 34 and 28 points, respectively. Jake Haar added 15 points, all from behind the arc, while Noah Szilagyi chipped in 14 points in the win.
Austin Coene (Sr./Tyngsborough, Mass.) led the way for the Hawks, netting 36 points and dishing out six assists,
Eli Harris (Fr./Falmouth, Mass.) had 20 points, and
Drew Hart (So./Cheshire, Conn.) added 13 points in the effort.
Both teams found offensive success to start the game with Gordon maintaining the slight lead. Haar connected on a three-pointer, then hustled back on defense stealing the ball from Jj Pfohl (So./Trumbull, Conn.) before pulling up for another three which brought the crowd to their feet.
The Scots led by as many as 11 thanks to a Josh Crutchfield layup, but Roger Williams had other plans. Harris and Coene combined for 15 points in the next six minutes to tie the game at 44. Demers hit a jumper with 53 ticks left on the clock to take the 51-49 lead going into the half.
Roger Williams got in rhythm offensively to open up the second leading for the first ten minutes of the half with Coene scoring 10 minutes within a two minute span.
Demers hit a trio of unanswered three-pointers to give the Scots the lead and forced Roger Williams to call a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Duvivier hit a layup to become Gordon College Men's Basketball's all-time leading scorer and also brought the score to 81-74 with 8:32 left.
Harris tied it up with 5:43 to go after sinking a shot from downtown. Haar answered back with a three of his own to take the lead for good. Gordon hit six-straight free throws to close out the contest, solidifying the 103-89 win.
- Release courtesy of the Gordon College Sports Information Department
