Box Score MILTON, Mass.--Visiting Western New England used a balanced offense behind sophomore Mike Gelineau's game-high 18 points to defeat Curry, 71-61, in the Commonwealth Coast Conference men's basketball opener for both teams at the CC Student Center Gymnasium on Wednesday. The Golden Bears won their second-straight to improve to 3-4 overall while the Colonels fall to 2-4 on the season.

Gelineau was 6 for 11 from the field, including 3-of-5 from three-point range, while graduate student Nick DeFeo and junior Zack Askew added 12 points apiece, and junior Gerald McDonald scored 11. Senior Musa Elsir and freshman Nelson Zayas contributed eight and six points, respectively.

Antonio Jones led Curry with 18 points, followed by Matt Russell with 17 on 7-for-9 field goal shooting.

After the teams started the opening 2 minutes getting a feel for the game, Elsir put WNE up 2-0 with a jump shot to start a tightly-contested first half. The first 20 minutes featured five ties and six lead changes as neither side led by more than six points. Both teams also shot extremely well in the early going with the Golden Bears making 55 percent of their attempts while the Colonels were even better near the 67 percent clip.

Jones hit a jumper to give the Colonels their largest lead of the night at 13-7 with 14 minutes and 15 second remaining. Five different Golden Bears scored a field goal over a 10-4 run to make it 17-all at the 9:44 mark.

The teams traded buckets over the next eight minutes before McDonald drained a 3-pointer to hand WNE its biggest advantage at 34-29 with 71 seconds left. James Pina and Tim Flanagan converted back-to-back layups to pull Curry within 34-33 at the break.

Curry controlled the boards, 36-30, led by Pina with 10, Russell with seven and Damani Carter had six. Askew completed the double-double by getting 10 rebounds and Elsir grabbed seven.

The second half started much like the first as the teams combined for six more lead changes. Pina opening the scoring to complete a 6-0 Curry run for a 35-34 lead until a Zayas layup gave the Golden Bears the lead for good at 38-37 with 17:01 left in the contest.

With the score 53-50 at the midway point of the second half, WNE began to pull away with a traditional three-point play by Askew and junior Tizauni Boyles made a pair of free throws to go up 58-50. The Golden Bears held at least a two-possession cushion the rest of the way.

Western New England forced 15 Colonels turnovers to translate into an 18-7 advantage in points off turnovers.

The Golden Bears will have their CCC home opener at 3 p.m. Saturday versus Roger Williams at the Alumni Healthful Living Center field house.