WENHAM, Mass.—Gordon Men's Basketball celebrated Senior Day with an important 11-point win over Curry College, 68-57. The Fighting Scots trailed for only 43 seconds in the entire contest and pulled away with sharpshooting from behind in the arc in the second half. Hans Miersma (Whitinsville, Mass.) had another career game with 20 points, 19 rebounds and six blocks to get the home crowd into it.
 
The Fighting Scots improve to 6-8 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference and 9-12 overall, while the Colonels drop to 2-12 in the CCC and 4-17 overall.
 
Miersma set the tone from the opening possession, slamming home a dunk from along the baseline to immediately get the crowd to their feet. The senior forward scored the first six points of the game to give Gordon the early lead.
 
Curry countered with an 8-0 run that spanned just over two minutes, as Gordon struggled to keep possession without turning the ball over. To counter Miersma, James Pina (Warwick, R.I.) scored all eight points for the Colonels during the run in an entertaining first five minutes of the contest.
 
The two teams traded bucked over the next four minutes before Gordon took a 12-10 lead on a fastbreak layup by freshman Jake Hart (Allendale, N.J.).  The Fighting Scots began to click on all cylinders over portion of the quarter, completing a 13-4 run on a three by senior Craig McFarlane (Hackensack, N.J.) at the 5:36 mark.
 
Curry would temporarily cut the Gordon lead to five points during the final four minutes, but Gordon's size inside gave them endless opportunities for looks close to the bucket. The Fighting Scots took a 33-24 lead into halftime on 44.4-percent shooting from the field. Miersma totaled 14 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks during the first 20 minutes of play.
 
The Fighting Scots opened a lead as large as 17 points over the first six minutes of the second half with freshman point guard Jaren Yang (San Francisco, Calif.) coming alive from deep.
 
Curry attacked the basket over the final 10 minutes and saw better results on the scoreboard. Led by senior Antonio Jones (Dorchester, Mass.), Curry clawed its way back within six points with just two minutes remaining in regulation.
 
Miersma hit two clutch free throws during a bizarre stoppage of play with 1:18 on the clock and McFarlane drained a three on the kick out from Yang to end any thoughts of a comeback.
 
Jones scored 18 points for the Colonels, playing all 40 minutes of the game. As a team Curry struggled from the charity stripe (10-of-23), but Jones made seven of his eight attempts. Pina's early spurt allowed him to finish with 12 points and three steals, while Danny Brooks scored eight and grabbed a team-high seven boards.

Aside from Miersma's rim-rocking game, Yang was the only other Gordon player in double-figures with 11 points. The Scots received major contributions from McFarlane (nine points) and Jason Dempsey (Wallingford, Conn.), who returned form a four-game absence with eight points and six rebounds. Sophomore Sam Johnson (Chatham, Mass.) also had a strong game off the bench with nine points on 4-of-7 shooting and coming up with four offensive caroms.
 
Gordon extended its nation-leading rebounding margin with a 49-33 advantage over the smaller Colonels. The Fighting Scots remain at home on Wednesday when the University of New England comes to town for a 5:30 tip-off. The Nor'easters handed the Scots a narrow loss in Biddeford earlier in the season.