Gordon College Men's Basketball hosted the Western New England Golden Bears tonight in a nail biter of a contest coming out on top, 78-72. With the win, Gordon improves to 3-0 on the year while WNE drops to 0-3.
 
For WNE, Alex Sikorski and Kenny Flynn led with 19 and 16 points in the effort while Zachary Tavitian had nine rebounds.
 
Sophomore Garrett Sattazahn delivered a strong performance for the Scots with a career-high 28 points while adding seven rebounds and another career-high seven assists. Complementing Sattazahn's performance was senior center Parker Omslaer who had 13 points and seven rebounds. 
 
How It Happened

• The Scots took control early taking an 8-2 lead before WNE continued to chip away to eventually knot it up at 10-all at the 15:15 mark.
• Sikorski gave the Golden Bears their largest lead of the game (12 points) with a dunk midway through the half. Three minutes later, Omslaer converted the bruise and the bucket to cut the Scots' deficit to four. 
• WNE again would lead by 12, but the Scots continued to fight back closing out the final two minutes of the half on a 10-3 run to make it a 48-43 ball game.
• Just over three minutes into the second half, Zachary Bennett drained a three to give Gordon the lead (51-49).
• The Scots continued to keep the Golden Bears at bay until Sikorski rattled home a jumper from three-point land to give WNE the 69-66 edge.
• Sattazahn had enough, answering back with a three of his own on the other end to score three of his nine straight points to put Gordon back up, 75-69. The blue and white hit a few crucial free throws in the closing seconds to secure the six-point W.

Beyond The Box Score

• Tonight's game marks season-highs for Sattazahn's in every category except rebounds.
• The Scots travel to WNE tomorrow to square off again against the Golden Bears at 2 p.m.
• Said Head Coach Tod Murphy: "It was a story of two halves. The first half was a wide open offensive game, and the second half was a grind it out defensive game. We knew we wouldn't win this game if we didn't pick up our defensive intensity, and our team accepted the challenge allowing WNE only 24 points in the second half. We are much smaller than we have been in the past, which so far has resulted in more steals and fewer turnovers. When we win the possession game, our chance of victory goes up tremendously. On an individual note, Garrett Sattazahn had one of the best all around games we have had at Gordon in a long time with 28 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and 6 steals."