By Michael Letendre

Jaekwon Spencer is back in the game – the basketball game that is – for the men’s program at Nichols College and the forward standout has been  simply excellent for the program in 2021-22 after a year away due to COVID canceling the Bisons’ season.

After a standout scholastic career at Bristol Central, Spencer is playing his third season of hoop at the collegiate level for the program in Dudley, Massachusetts.

The Bisons are 9-1 to date this year and Spencer has been contributing immensely over that hot start.

The 6-foot-5, 185 pound forward has started all 10 games for the team, kicking in 15.9 points (second on the squad) to go along with 7.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.1 steals-per-game.

Don’t forget about his 1.1 blocks-per-game as Spencer always brings defense to the program he competes for.

The pandemic knocked out the 2020-21 collegiate campaign but he came back for his ‘senior’ season this year ranked sixth in career blocks in program history.

Once again, Spencer leads the team in blocks and he’s tied for first in rebounds as well.

Spencer is nearly a 78-percent free throw shooter and we all know he loves to shoot from downtown.

Going into the month of January, he’s drained 23-of-60 three-pointers for a healthy 38.3-percent shooting clip.

He’s a big weapon, in more ways than one, for the program.

Spencer took a team season-high 18 field goal attempts at Trinity on December 6 while his 6-of-11 shooting from 3 against the University of New England on December 4 are the top totals for the Bisons on an individual level this season.

He has two games of double-figure rebounds with a season-high of 15 coming against Emerson back on November 11.

As a sophomore in 2019-20, Spencer took part in all 30 games and was the third leading scorer for the program.

He averaged a healthy 12.4 points-per-game while collecting two double-doubles along the way.

Spencer nabbed 14 points and 10 rebounds at Lasell on December 7, 2019, while securing 18 points and 11 rebounds against UNE on February 1, 2020.

He was named Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Player of the Week February 24 after averaging 27 points and seven rebounds in a pair of CCC victories. 

In one of his standout games as a sophomore, Spencer canned 11-of-12 field goals against Salve Regina, ending the contest with 26 points back on February 8, 2020.

Over a busy freshman campaign in 2018-19, Spencer appeared in 26 games – averaging 5.0 points and 3.1 rebounds-per-game.

He dropped in 15 points and 10 rebounds – both season highs – in 27 minutes in a Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) semifinal victory over Western New England back on February 21, 2019.

On January 12 of that same year, he scooped up 13 points, eight rebounds, five assists, two blocks, and two steals against UNE and then added 14 points over just 21 minutes against Western New England to end the month.

Before Donovan Clingan patrolled the paint at Bristol Central, Spencer did a very good job for the program during his three years of varsity action, scoring over 1,000 points for the team as the man in the middle.

Currently (and depending on who Central recognizes as 1,000-point scorers), he’s currently the 14th all-time leading scorer in the city (1,196 points) which includes all three schools in town.

As a senior in 2017-18, he scored 514 points for an average of 21.4 points-per-game for the Rams.

Over 24 contests, as Central went a sterling 18-6 overall, he drained 29 three-pointers, dropped a career-high 35 points along the way, rebounded more than his share, and showed scoring ability all over the court in head coach Tim Barrette’s high-low offensive attack.