Box Score WENHAM, Mass.--Western New England trailed by as many as 17 points in the second half but the Golden Bears' furious comeback fell just shy in a 64-61 Commonwealth Coast Conference men's basketball loss to host Gordon at the Bennett Center on Tuesday evening. Western New England falls to 3-7 on the season and 1-2 in the CCC, while the Fighting Scots improve to 5-6 overall and 2-2 in the conference.

Sophomore Mike Gelineau was the lone Golden Bear scorer in double digits with 15 points. Freshman Lucien Fortier led WNE's strong bench play with nine points, followed by sophomore Daniel Silva and junior Luis Agrait with eight and seven, respectively. Western New England reserves outscored the Fighting Scots' 26-11.

Jason Dempsey paced Gordon with a double-double of a game-high 18 points and 10 rebounds. Dempsey made all five of his field goal attempts and went 8 of 14 from the free throw line. Jaren Yang added 15 points and Hans Miersma also posted a double-double with 12 points and game-best 18 rebounds.

Trailing 51-34 midway through the second half, WNE got back in the game by making a 21-7 run over a span of 11 minutes and 21 seconds to make the deficit 58-55 with 1:11 remaining. Fortier made a pair of free throws and Silva connected on a 3-pointer to ignite the comeback. Gelineau scored eight points and graduate student Nick DeFeo scored all seven of his points during the run.

After Miersma made a dunk, Agrait countered with a 3-ball to make the score 60-58 in favor of the Fighting Scots with 21 seconds left. Yang then made two free throws to push Gordon's lead to 62-58 before Fortier drained a trey to pull the Golden Bears within a point. With 4 seconds left in the game, WNE fouled Dominic Paradis who made the first free throw and missed the second, but Dempsey collected the offensive rebound.

After Dempsey converted one of two free throws with two ticks left on the clock, WNE had one last chance to force overtime but Gelineau's half-court heave fell short as the Scots survived with the win.

A jump shot by junior Gerald McDonald gave WNE its biggest lead of the game of seven points at 16-9 with 9:36 left in the first half, but Gordon eventually took over and went into the break with a 38-27 advantage. Miersma dunked among six consecutive points scored for his team to put the Fighting Scots ahead for good at 19-17.

Western New England returns home at the Alumni Healthful Living Center at 7:30 p.m. Thursday when Nichols comes to town for a CCC contest.

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