Second-Half Surge Lifts Men’s Basketball Over Mitchell College, 69-59

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College junior guard Andre French (Torrington, Conn.) poured in a game-high 26 points on the strength of six three-pointers to help lift the Blazers to a 69-59 victory over Mitchell College in Thursday evening's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) men's basketball game at Yarnall Athletic Center in New London, Conn.

With the win, Elms improves to 10-5 on the season, 5-1 in conference play, while Mitchell moves to 5-8 overall, 3-4 in NECC action.

In the opening period, Elms held an edge for the first 12:49 as junior forward David McDaniel (Plainfield, N.J.) canned a pair of early treys, while French added three triples as the Blazers built its lead to as many as eight points to set the score at 26-18.

Mitchell answered as Joshua Ford (Jersey City, N.J.) nailed a three-pointer to start a 11-2 run over the next four minutes to set the score at 29-28 in favor of the Mariners. A layup by Elms' senior guard Bryant Corcoran (Waterbury, Conn.) put Elms ahead by one, but Enoch Contreras (Boca Raton, Fla.) knocked down a three-pointer as Mitchell scored seven of the final 11 points to close out the half with a 36-32 advantage.

Elms came out firing to the start the second half as Corcoran and French drained back-to-back shots from beyond the arc to even the game at 38-38 at the 19:26 mark.

Over the next 16:07 neither team could establish more than a six-point lead as the sides battled to their eighth tie of the contest at 57-57 with 3:19 remaining in regulation.

From there, French swished his sixth three-pointer with 2:57 remaining as Elms used a 12-2 run in the final minutes of the game, highlighted by a 7 for 10 effort at the free throw line, to pull away to a 69-59 victory.

French hit on 9 of 16 from the floor and 6 of 8 from long distance to register 26 points and added four steals and four assists, while McDaniel and senior guard Daniel Gonzalez (East Windsor, Conn.) finished with nine points each.

McDaniel led Elms with 10 rebounds and a pair of blocks, while junior forward Darius Griffin (Winter Haven, Fla.) added seven points and five rebounds off the bench.

Elms shot 40.4-percent as a team for the game and 40.7-percent from three-point range, including 42.9-percent in the second half, while Mitchell hit on 34.4-percent of its shots but was limited to just 28.1-percent shooting in the final 20 minutes.

Ford finished with a team-high 16 points and a game-best 15 boards in the losing effort, while Contreras added 15 points and four assists.

Alex Del Rio (New Britain, Conn.) contributed eight points, eight rebounds and four assists off the bench for the Mariners.

Elms returns to NECC action on Saturday, Jan. 21 when it travels to Daniel Webster College for a 1:00 p.m. contest.