Gritty Comeback Leads Men’s Basketball Past Nichols, 90-85 (OT)

DUDLEY, Mass. — The Endicott College men's basketball team defeated Nichols, 90-85, a in Conference of New England (CNE) classic on Wednesday evening inside the Nichols Athletic Center.

Marcus Montagnino (Gloucester, Mass.) led the Blue and Green with a game-high 30 points, 13 rebounds, and seven steals (career-high).

Elijah Kinney (Nashville, Tenn.) added 23 points and 12 boards for his sixth double-double of the 2024-25 campaign, while Drew Brown (Pelham, N.H.) recorded 16 points. 

Meanwhile, Nichols led 38-29 at the break and owned its largest lead of 48-35, but the Gulls chipped into the Bison advantage (52-47) courtesy of a 9-2 spurt. The stretch was spearheaded by Kinney with seven points.

Endicott cut the lead to one point (69-68) with 2:55 remaining via a Montagnino putback lay-in.

From there, the Bison and Gulls traded free throws. Nichols led 73-70 before a Brown corner three-pointer deadlocked the game at 73-73. The Blue and Green got a clutch stop on the defensive end.

With one second to play, Parker McLaren (Newburyport, Mass.) side-rimmed a corner three-pointer that would've won the matchup.

In the extra session, both squads exchanged leads for the first three minutes of overtime.

Montagnino scored seven consecutive points to give the Gulls an 86-82 lead with 57 seconds left. Nichols cut the lead to an 86-85 advantage with 37 seconds left, but Montagnino nailed a layup to extend the lead to a slim 88-85 with 17 seconds to play. Endicott's clutch foul shooting down the stretch and lockdown defense led the Gulls to an unbelievable comeback on the road.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• The visitors held the edge on the glass, 51-37.
• Montagnino's seven steals are tied for fifth all-time in program history for most in a single game.
• The Gulls led for 1:31 of the contest in regulation and 3:38 including overtime.
• Nichols leads the all-time series, 24-22.
• Tonight's matchup featured the top-scorer in the CNE via Nichols' Javen Flowers-Smith (Atlanta, Ga.) (23.1 PPG) and the second-leading scorer Endicott's Montagnino (21.8 PPG).
• McLaren hauled in nine boards in 27 minutes off the bench.

WHAT'S NEXT

Endicott (10-6, 7-2 CNE) takes the short trip to Gordon on Saturday, January 25 at 3:00 PM. Nichols (8-8, 5-4 CNE) visits Roger Williams on Saturday for a 3:00 PM tipoff. 

For the latest on Endicott Athletics, follow the Gulls on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

(Photo Credit - Bradley Griffin '28)