Gordon College Men's Basketball continued Commonwealth Coast Conference play this afternoon as they hosted the Conference undefeated Hawks of Roger Williams (RWU) where the Fighting Scots battled to break their guest's streak but ultimately fell, 75-78. 

Michael Makiej and Bryce Smith both showed off today, spearheading the Scots with a game-high 19 points a piece, meanwhile, Justin Yu helped out his squad by contributing 11 points in the effort.

The visitors were led by Philip Sughrue who booked 16 points followed by Mac Annus and Will Macdonald who added 15 points to seal the win. 

How It Happened

• The Hawks started off the game with a three-pointer to take the initial lead after almost two minutes of a back and forth standstill. While the Fighting Scots chipped away at their deficit, RWU was able to hold on to their slight advantage throughout the half, until the clock struck 7:29 when Smith sunk one from the charity stripe to knot it up at 17. But the Hawks did not relinquish their lead until Justin Yu gave the blue and white the go-ahead points after a crowd-roaring basket from downtown to bring the score to 28-26 with 1:38 remaining, however, the Scots did not grab the lead for long as the Hawks retaliated to take a three-point edge heading into the second half, 33-30. 
• Coming back from the break, RWU immediately added to their lead with one from Sughrue from behind the arc less than 30 seconds into action, but the Fighting Scots got fired up and went on an eight-point run highlighted by back to back threes from Zachary Bennett and Yu to take the 38-36 advantage. But the Hawks refused to be behind, flipping the script to take an eight-point lead with 11:44 remaining (52-44). The Scots slowly chipped away in the remaining minutes until a gym shattering three from Smith gave Gordon the one-point edge, 69-68 with 3:55 left on the clock. From then on, the squads traded the advantage until a layup in the paint gave the Hawks a three-point lead with 66 seconds remaining that the Scots were unable to catch up to, taking the eventual 75-78 loss. 

Beyond The Box score

• Michael Makiej has scored double-digit points in 11 of the 12 games he has played in so far this season.
• The Fighting Scots hit the road on Tuesday, January 10 when they travel to Milton, Mass. to square up against the Curry College Colonels at 7:30 p.m.