BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Villa Maria College men's basketball team were at home on Tuesday against Bryant and Stratton Rochester for their regular season finale. The two teams met a month ago on January 23 and the Vikings were able to hold on for a 77-76 victory. Unfortunately, this game did not go that direction and Villa fell by a final score of 66-53.
 
The bobcats jumped out ahead by double-digits early in the first half, leading 14-4 at the 16:34 mark. The Vikings began to chip away at that score thanks to timely scoring by Nolan Shephard. He kicked it off with a layup, before knocking down back-to-back three pointers to bring the deficit to four. Jeriah Williams then added a layup to bring the score to 16-14 with 13 minutes to go. The opposition once again pushed their lead to eight, but the Vikings proved to be resilient thanks to two layups by Shephard and two layups by Williams, which evened the score at 23-23 with just under five minutes to go. The two teams traded baskets and went into halftime even at 30 apiece.
 
The two teams continued to trade makes until the Bobcats caught fire from beyond the arc. Villa quickly trailed by 11 points with 10:39 on the clock and despite cutting it to single digits twice, the Bobcats consistently hit shots to keep Villa back. When the final seconds counted down, the Vikings lost by a final score of 66-53.
 
Williams was the leading scorer with 26 points, shooting 10-for-15 from the field and 2-for-2 from three. He also collected eight rebounds and recorded one block and one steal. Shephard was the other double-digit scorer for Villa, totaling 15 points to go along with five rebounds and one steal.
 
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