Men’s Basketball Cruises By Mitchell, 79-59
Men’s Basketball Cruises By Mitchell, 79-59
CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College senior point
guard Juan Maldonado (Holyoke, Mass.) scored a
game-high 18 points and senior forward Antoine Holder
(Hartford, Conn.) netted 17 points to help lift the
Blazers to a 79-59 victory over Mitchell College in Saturday
afternoon’s New England Collegiate Conference (NECC)
men’s basketball game at Picknelly Arena.
With the win, Elms has now won five straight to improve to 18-6
overall, 11-2 in NECC play. Mitchell falls to 3-17 on the season,
2-9 in conference action.
Elms raced out to a commanding 26-9 lead in the opening 10:19 of
the game. Maldonado drained a trio of three-pointers to highlight
the stretch.
Mitchell scored eight unanswered points to pull to within nine
thanks to a pair from beyond the arc by Paul Jefferson
(Waterbury, Conn.) and a jumper by Drew Norris
(Wilson, N.C.) to set the score at 26-17 with 7:47 to play
in the first half.
Elms’ junior guard Arsenio Avant (Southwest,
Fla.) then drained a trey to spark a 14-2 run that saw
Maldonado hit another three-pointer and a jumper, senior forward
Javon Mathis (East Hartford, Conn.) swish a pair
from the stripe, Holder hit a mid-range jumper and senior forward
Austin Sylvia (Seekonk, Mass.) sink a jumper to
give Elms a 21-point lead at 40-19 with 2:38 to go in the frame.
From there, a layup by Holder with 25 ticks left gave the Blazers a
22-point cushion at intermission.
Elms scored 16 of the first 23 points to start the second period
on the strength of a trey by sophomore guard Bryant
Corcoran (Wolcott, Conn.), six points from junior forward
Edgar Martinez (Springfield, Mass.) and two points
apiece from Maldonado, Holder and freshman guard Brittain Purcelle
(Tarrytown, N.Y.) and a free throw by junior
forward Juan Alverio (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico) to
set the score at 59-28 with 13:23 to go in the contest.
A Holder layup at the 11:54 mark of the frame gave Elms a
commanding 34-point advantage, its largest of the game.
Elms maintained at least a 20-point lead for the remainder of the
contest, as Martinez finished with eight points off the bench,
while Purcelle and freshman forward Jamal Hulum (Reston,
Va.) chipped in six points each.
Alverio and Hulum tied for a team high in rebounds with five each,
while freshman guard Andre French (Torrington,
Conn.) dished out a game-best six assists. Mathis added
two blocked shots in the winning effort.
Jefferson came off the bench to lead the Mariners’ offensive
attack, netting 17 points, while Tyler Blier (Wolcott,
Conn.) added eight in the losing effort.
Elms shot 51.7-percent from the floor, guided by a 4 for 6 effort
from three-point range by Maldonado.
Elms concludes its regular season on Saturday, Feb. 20 when it
travels to Newbury College for an NECC contest. Game time is set
for 12:00 p.m. in Brookline, Mass.
