DUDLEY, Mass. – The Roger Williams men's basketball team opened up Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) play Wednesday evening, at the Nichols Athletic Center, defeating the defending conference champs, 87-67.
 
The Hawks were led offensively by Mac Annus (Belmont, Mass.) who tallied 22 points with seven rebounds, while dishing out three assists. Nate Lopes (Scituate, Mass.) and John Ah Kao (Dumont, N.J.) both had 16 points, and Sean Gogolin (Winchester, Mass.) and Will MacDonald (York, Maine) each scored in double digits.
 
The Hawks bench accounted for 31 points in the matchup, while scoring 40 points in the paint, and barely edged out the Bison with 10 second chance points to Nichols 9.
 
Nichols led 14-7, 7:09 into the contest, before Roger Williams tallied nine straight points taking a 16-14 lead. With 3:58 remaining in the first half, Nichols led by six, but the Hawks cut the lead down to one, before eventually overtaking the lead by three heading into the half.
 
The Hawks jumped out to an eight-point lead in the opening 3:22 of the second half, taking a 48-40 lead. The Bison cut the game back to two, but the Hawks used a 15-0 run, taking a commanding 64-48 lead with 11:18 remaining in the game. The Hawks were able to push their lead to 20 points with 6:31 left in the contest as they held on to defeat the Bison.
 
Roger Williams (3-2, 1-0 CCC) will host Curry for a CCC contest on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 3 pm.  They will then travel to face Suffolk on Tuesday, Dec. 6 for a 7:30 pm tilt, before rounding out the fall semester on Dec. 10 at home against UMaine – Presque Isle.