SPRINGFIELD, Mass. â€" It was the kind of game that had both coaches shaking their heads at the end.

Senior guard Jon Godbout (Bristol, CT) scored 25 points and freshman guard Matt Maynard (Paterson, NJ) added 12 points as Western New England College held on for a 72-66 victory over visiting Rivier College Monday night in a hard-fought Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's basketball contest.

The Golden Bears led 34-22 at half-time and by 18 at 56-38 with 11:07 left in the game before the Raiders staged a dramatic comeback led by senior forward Brian Stice (Dover, NH) who came off the bench to score 18 of his game high 27 points in the second half.

Rivier pulled within 67-65 after junior guard Ryan Murphy (Epping, NH) converted one of two free charity shots with 23.8 seconds left.

Junior center Deon Thomas (Albany, NY) made one of two free throws a second later for WNEC before coming up with a key steal that led to a pair of free throws by sophomore guard Ryan Hernandez (Hampton Bays, NY) that made the score 70-65 with 15 seconds remaining.

Thomas finished with eight points along with a game high 11 rebounds for the Golden Bears who improved their record to 13-10 (11-5 GNAC) after winning for the fifth time in their last six contests.

Stice had a great night making 11-of-15 shots from the field while pulling down seven rebounds in 21 minutes. Sophomore forward Jeff Brown (Wells, ME) added 11 points in a reserve role while junior forward Chris Giordano (Medford, MA) had 10 points.

Rivier falls to 11-13 overall and 7-10 in the conference.