Men's Basketball Holds Off Elms Down the Stretch

CHICOPEE, Mass. – A sharp-shooting Mitchell College men's basketball team came away with an 80-71 victory at Elms College on Tuesday night at Picknelly Arena in the New England Collegiate Conference opener for each squad.

Mitchell (5-7, 1-0 NECC) shot 50 percent from the field (32-for-64) to fend off a pesky Elms team. Domenico Santiago had 21 points on 9-for-12 shooting and added a game-high 13 rebounds. Steffen Brunson netted a game-high 22 points to go with five assists and four rebounds, and Hasani Williams chipped in 12 points to round out the Mariners in double digits.

D.J. Edelen scored a team-high 15 points off the bench for the Blazers, shooting 5-for-12 from the field while draining three three-pointers. DeAngelo Cousar added 12 points and Nikolas Brown finished with nine. Andre Peguero contributed five points and a team-high eight boards.

Elms (0-10, 0-1 NECC) out-rebounded Mitchell 44-41 in the game, including 12-6 on the offensive end. The Blazers, however, shot 37 percent from the field and hit just 8-of-28 (29 percent) of their three-point attempts.

After trailing 43-37 at halftime, the Blazers were playing catch-up for the entire second half. Elms cut the deficit to 59-54 with 7:25 to play, but the Mariners responded with a 12-3 run to fend off the comeback attempt. Brunson and Alan Morgan each contributed a pair of buckets during the stretch, which began with a three-pointer from Brayvon Young.

Mitchell will next host Dean College on Thursday, January 11 at 5:30 p.m.