Box Score DUDLEY, Mass. (January 14, 2026) – A big 22-3 run to begin the second half helped the Western New England men's basketball team come up with a 79-65 victory over the Bison of Nichols College on Wednesday night. Luka Vlajkovic and Matt Houde combined for 22 points to begin the second half, helping pace WNE to victory. 

Records:

• Western New England: 9-4, 3-2 CNE
• Nichols College: 9-6, 4-2 CNE

How it Happened:

First Half:

• The Bison jumped out to a quick 4-0 in the opening minute and a half to begin the first half of action when Olivier St. Louis and Javen Flowers-Smith had the early scores for Nichols. Western New England's first bucket of the game came from sophomore Eddie McCoy when Luka Vlajkovic found a cutting McCoy for a layup. Avery Mickens then began to heat up, hitting the next two baskets for the Golden Bears to quickly tie the game at six. 
• With the game tied at eight, Nichols came down to hit a layup and a triple to take a five-point lead with 11:11 remaining in the half. A pair of free throws from Mickens brought WNE back within three, but Darrell Hardge connected for the first time from the outside for the Bison, giving Nichols a 16-10 lead past the midway point of the opening half. The Golden Bears fought back quickly, scoring the next six points to even the score at 16 after McCoy dropped in the first Western New England three-pointer of the night. 
• Western New England took the lead for a short minute after Travis Mangual and Nate Kasper picked up a pair of layups in between a triple from Nichols, giving WNE a 22-21 lead with 6:46 left in the half. Luka Vlajkovic got on the board with his first three points of the night at the 4:26 mark, hitting a three that gave the Golden Bears a 27-24 advantage. 
• Down the stretch, both teams went back and forth, trading bucket for bucket, with the Golden Bears clinging onto a late lead following a triple from Matt Houde and a layup from Vlajkovic. Western New England picked up a two-point lead at the break, leading 34-32 in a back-and-forth contest. 
• The Golden Bears shot just 35% from the floor in the opening quarter, going just 3/15 from the outside. The Golden Bears were saved on the glass, picking up 27 rebounds to Nichols' 15. Western New England had nine offensive rebounds while Nichols did not have any. The Bison shot 45% from the field, led by Javon Flowers-Smith, who scored 13 points in the opening frame to lead the way.

Second Half:

• Western New England forced a timeout from the Bison just 2:09 into the second half after Matt Houde and Luka Vlajkovic hit back-to-back triples, while Vlajkovic got into double figures in scoring with a layup plus a foul shot, giving the Golden Bears a double-digit lead, 43-32, in what was a quick run to begin the half. Flowers-Smith stopped the WNE 9-0 run to begin the frame with a layup to get the Bison on the scoreboard 2:40 into it.  The Golden Bears continued to connect on all cylinders, leading by as many as 17 just five minutes into the half as Houde raised his point total to 16 on the night after a three-ball and a jumper went down on back-to-back possessions, forcing a second timeout from Nichols with WNE leading 52-35. 
• Vlajkovic and Houde continued to carry the WNE offense in the second half, as the Golden Bears fed the hot hands of their two seniors, who combined for the first 22 WNE points in the second half.  Nichols went on a quick 7-0 run to force a timeout from the Golden Bears, who led 56-52 with 12 minutes to play in the game. Out of the timeout, Will Laplante III picked up a quick five points for Western New England to grow the lead back to 19. 
• Nichols began to chip into WNE's lead as the game got chippy at the midway point of the half, dropping WNE's lead all the way down to ten with 7:30 left to play when Noah Rudman slammed home a dunk for Nichols.  Travis Mangual stopped the run with a jump shot to help calm the Nichols faithful. The bucket from Mangual sparked a quick 6-0 run for the Golden Bears that gave them a more comfortable 69-53 lead. Two straight triples for Nichols gave the home team some life after Ethan Minarik and Kuany Teng hit from deep, but a layup from the speedy Nate Kasper gave WNE a little more breathing room, up 71-59 with 3:44 remaining. 
• Nichols got within eight with 1:22 left as their three points shooting saved them late as the Golden Bears could not quite close out the home team. Minarik, and Dominic Mello hit for the Bison from distance to get Nichols back under a single digit-deficit, one that hadn't seen since the beginning stages of the second half, trailing 73-65. Despite the late run from Nichols, Western New England's free-throw shooting would be enough to take care of Nichols,  defeating the Bison by a final score of 79-65. 
• The Golden Bears shot 50% in the second half, hitting four times from the outside. WNE went 12/25 from inside the arc. The Golden Bears made nine of their 20 free throws in the second half, which did not come back to haunt the Blue and Gold. 

Inside the Lines:

• Luka Vlajkovic led Western New England with 21 points and 21 rebounds in the game. The 21 rebounds are a career-high in a single game. Vlajkovic also picked up four assists, a block, and a steal. 
• Matt Houde helped WNE with 19 points on 6/10 shooting, going 3/6 from the outside. Houde added four assists and two rebounds to his stat line on the night. 
• Travis Mangual picked up eight points and ten rebounds for WNE. 
• Javon Flowers-Smith led Nichols with 21 points on 9/18 shooting. 
• Wednesday's win marks three in a row for the Golden Bears over the Bison all-time. 

Up Next on the Schedule:

• The Golden Bears host the Leopards of Wentworth Institute of Technology this coming Saturday, January 17, at 4:00 PM for Conference of New England action in Springfield.