QUINCY, Mass.—A methodical second half helped Gordon Men's Basketball take home a season sweep of rival Eastern Nazarene, 70-62. The Fighting Scots raced out to a big lead at the start, but cooled down in the middle of the game before settling down late for an important Commonwealth Coast Conference victory at the Lahue PE Center on Wednesday.
Gordon followed a similar script as its win over Western New England on Saturday by zipping out to a hot start from the opening tip. The Fighting Scots made their first five shots from the field, with four of them coming from junior Jake Hart (Allendale, N.J.) to take a 12-8 lead. After David Eddings (Endicott, N.Y.) made a jumper with 15:36 to go in the half, Gordon went on a 9-0 run over the next three minutes for a 21-10 advantage.
From that point however, Gordon suddenly could not find its stroke from the floor. ENC's Corey Doran (Fairfield, Calif.) made the only two buckets for either team in a six-minute span and the Lions were eventually able to creep back within one point at 21-20. Gordon went a full eight minutes without scoring a single point to allow the Lions back into the swing of things.
The Fighting Scots were able to temporarily stop the bleeding with three straight points, but the Lions battled back again to close the game to a 28-27 gap at halftime.
Doran outscored the Scots 4-2 out of the gate in the second half, giving ENC its first lead of the game at 31-30 with 18:25 to go in regulation. Held to zero points in the first half, Jake Haar (Huntington Beach, Calif.) drilled a deep ball two possessions later to give the Scots a lead again.
The Fighting Scots would never trail again.
As he has all season, Haar hit triples in bunches. The sophomore shooting guard hit two more before the quarter mark of the second half to push Gordon's lead to six before the Lions could blink. The two teams went on to trade buckets for the next stretch before fellow Gordon sophomore Noah Szilagyi (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) got in on the three parade. The reserve guard hit a pair of long threes off the pass from Jaren Yang (San Francisco, Calif.) to put the Scots ahead 52-45 at the turn.
Gordon was able to control the game for the next eight minutes, growing its lead to as many as 11 in that span.
Eastern Nazarene would not go quietly though. Doran made a tough layup with 37 second ticks on the clock to close the gap to eight and Gordon turned the ball over right away to set up the Lions in a great position. Freshman Josh Rice (Hanson, Mass.) launched a corner three directly off of the impending inbounds pass, not unlike the shot he made to send the game to overtime in the first meeting between the two sides. Rice nailed the shot to put some pressure on the Fighting Scots.
Yang and Szilagyi made three free throws in the final 30 seconds to close out the Lions for an all-important series win.
Christian Lynch (Alpharetta, Ga.) led all players with 17 points, while Doran chipped in 16. Eddings also had double figures with 10 points and six boards. Anthony Petrilli (Santa Clarita, Calif.) dished out a game-high eight assists.
Szilagyi led a spread Gordon attack with 12 points off the bench. Garrisson Duvivier (Brockton, Mass.), Sam Johnson (Chatham, Mass.) and Haar all finished with 11 points. Duvivier led Gordon in assists with six, while Johnson had a game-best nine boards.
Gordon went 5-of-6 from three in the second half after making just three of nine attempts in the first.
The Fighting Scots swept the Lions for the first time since the 2012-13 season after entering the season as losers in four of their last five in the matchup.
Gordon (11-7, 8-3 CCC) looks ahead to Nichols, who beat the Scots on a buzzer beater in the first game of the New Year on January 3. The Scots and Bison enter the weekend tied for second place behind Endicott.
