Gordon College Men's Basketball traveled to Springfield, Massachusetts this evening for their third straight Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) matchup against the Western New England (WNE) Golden Bears. The Fighting Scots battled to the final second but were narrowly defeated by the home team, 87-85.

For the Scots, Garrett Sattazahn dropped a game-high 23 points, Michael Makiej booked 15 points and nine rebounds, Bryce Smith chipped in 14 points, and Treyton Tebbs recorded 11 points in the effort. 

WNE's Alex Sikorski netted 18 points, Brian Geitner added 14 points, while Jake Harrison and Tim Restall each had 13 points.

How It Happened

• It was point for point early on as Gordon and WNE were locked up at 2-2, 7-7, 9-9, and 11-11 before the Fighting Scots saw back to back layups from Sattazahn and Makiej to begin to tip the lead in their favor. The Golden Bears came right back however, to tie the score up again at 16-16 before going on top, 18-16.
• Gordon had enough of the back and forth chess match as the blue and white strung together 11 straight points to to lead 27-18 with 8:50 remaining in the first half. A minute and a half later, Makiej drained a three before Smith connected on two from the charity stripe, extending Gordon's lead to as many as 12 before WNE got in rhythm to make it a three-point game with just under four minutes to go in the frame.
• Gordon closed out the first by outscoring WNE 9-0 to regain their comfortable 12 point lead at the break (48-36).
• The Golden Bears worked up an appetite in the locker room, and with Gordon leading 59-52 six minutes into the half, WNE went on a 14-0 run to flip the script and lead 66-59 at the 11:35 mark. Smith and Sattazahn helped cut the deficit to three within the next two minutes, but WNE maintained the advantage, leading by as many as 10 with just under five to play in regulation.
• With just under two minutes left, Gordon netted a few key baskets from Makiej and Sattazahn, eventually coming within one with 48 ticks on the clock. However, WNE hit a freebie down the stretch and kept the Fighting Scots off the board to defeat the blue and white, 87-85.

Beyond The Box Score

• The Fighting Scots return to Kanas Court on Thursday, December 9 to host Eastern Nazarene College at 7:30 p.m.
• Garrett Sattazahn netted a season-high 23 points.
• Rookie Treyton Tebbs had a career-high 11 points in tonight's matchup.