LYNN, Mass. – Gordon Men's Basketball dropped its third straight contest with a narrow loss at NAIA opponent Fisher on Thursday night, 79-76. Gordon's trio of senior starters all had strong games, but the Fighting Scots struggled to break the press of the athletic Falcons in the late stages of the second half. Gordon falls to 2-6 on the season.
 
Gordon started the scoring in the matchup when Taylor Bajema (Whitinsville, Mass.) hit a layup to put the Scots up 2-0. The Scots went up 5-0 after Dominic Paradis (Rochester, N.H.) sank a three pointer. Another two pointer put the Scots up 7-2. The Falcons then went on a seven-point run to give them their first lead of the game, 9-7. After two layups, the Scots took the lead back and went up 11-9. 
 
Neither team was able to gain control of the momentum on the offensive end and they remained tied for a majority of the first half. Tied at 23 apiece with nine minutes to go in the period, Fisher was able to finally break through the Scots defense for an 11-2 run and put Gordon in a nine-point hole.
 
The three-point shot was kind to the Falcons for much of the night and they took advantage of its offensive fire during the extended run. However, Gordon answered with a long run of its own, scoring nine consecutive points over a four-minute span to tie the game at 34. Chris Green hit a free throw before time ran out in the first half. Heading into the break, Fisher was ahead 35-34.
 
Gordon was led by Hans Miersma (Whitinsville, Mass.) with 10 points and seven rebounds, while Bajema had nine points and one rebound. Carter Bras (Coppell, Texas) and Paradis scored five points apiece for the Scots in the first half. Miersma was also outstanding on the defensive end with five blocks in the period.
 
Coming out of the break, Gordon quickly took the lead, 36-35, on a Bajema jump shot. Green and Shular didn't allow the Scots to hang on to the lead for long and put the Falcons up 40-36. Jaren Yang (San Francisco, Calif.) and the Scots responded once again, capped off by back-to-back triples from the freshman point guard to give Gordon its largest lead of the half, 48-44.
 
With 12:31 left in the game, Haywood hit a layup to put the Falcons back up for the remainder of the game. The Scots managed to tie the game at 57 in with just under 6:00 left in the game, but a tough series events in a 10 second span suddenly put Gordon in a five-point hole.
 
Falcons' leading scorer was Tyler Shular with 18 points and three rebounds. The senior point guard scored 13 of his points in the second half and was a perfect 3-for-3 from behind the arch, including a dagger in the closing minutes. Holmes (16 points, one rebound) and Ortiz (14 points, seven rebounds) helped the Falcons to their victory.
 
In the loss, Bajema recorded 21 points and one rebound. Senior Jason Dempsey (Wallingford, Conn.) had 18 points andgrabbed eight rebounds, and Miersma recorded a double-double with 16 points and 18 rebounds. The Commonwealth Coast Conference player of the week also added seven blocks on the night. Yang had his best single-game assist total of his young career with seven.
 
Gordon heads to Cambridge, Mass. in hopes of breaking a losing stretch on Saturday evening at 5 p.m. The Fighting Scots will matchup with Lesley University (1-5), who is currently 0-2 against CCC opponents this winter. 


Portions of release courtesy of Fisher Sports Info