DUDLEY, Mass. – The Roger Williams University men's basketball team earned an 86-80 victory on Thursday evening in the Nichols Athletic Center against the Nichols College Bison in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Semifinals.

The win pushes Roger Williams to their first CCC Championship Game appearance in 2016.

Mac Annus (Belmont, Mass.) had 20 points with eight boards in the contest, shooting 9-17 from the field. Philip Sughrue (Winchester, Mass.) also had 18 points with three rebounds and seven assists while John Ah Kao (Dumont, N.J.) had 16 points in the tilt.

Tavon Jones had a game-high 31 points for Nichols going 13-22 from the floor with 10 rebounds in the contest, while Mykel Derring added 22 points with eight rebounds.

Nichols led by eight with 9:58 remaining in the first half before the Hawks saw a jumper by Ah Kao and a three by Ty Higgins (New Marlborough, Mass.) drained to cut the lead down to three. With 3:25 remaining in the half the two teams were tied after Will MacDonald (York, Maine) connected on a jumper to level the score at 34 apiece. After the Bison connected on a three, the Hawks scored the next nine points, before Derring hit a jumper to cut the Bison's deficit to four heading into the half.

In the second half, the Bison cut the lead down to one in the opening 3:08, but Roger Williams again was able to extend the lead out to four. After a pair of free throws by Jones, the Bison added a three by Duckworth to take the lead with 15:53 remaining.

After trading the lead back and forth the Hawks were able to regain the lead with back-to-back jumpers by Annus and Ah Kao to retake the lead. After Roger Williams led by 10, the Bison were able to level the score with 3:00 remaining at 75-75, after an initial free throw by Jason Ofcarcik, Ofcarcik hit another shot to give Nichols a lead, with Derring doing the same 54 seconds later to put Nichols up two.

A jumper by Sughrue leveled the score at 77-77 before he finished an and one attempt to take the lead with 1:58 remaining. The Hawks scored nine straight points as the Hawks were able to hold onto the lead while holding the Bison scoreless for 1:53 to close out the victory.

Roger Williams (13-14, 8-8 CCC) will host No. 6 Suffolk at 3:00 pm on Saturday, Feb. 24 for the CCC Championship Game with the winner clinching the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.