Pollard's 24 Not Enough as Men's Basketball Falls on Senior Day

NEW LONDON, Conn. – Owen Liss led all scorers with 31 points as Norwich held off the Mitchell College men's basketball team 86-83 on Senior Day, the regular season finale for both teams in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) game.

Norwich improves to 17-8 overall and 12-5 in the GNAC while the Mariners drop to 7-18 overall and 4-10 in conference play.

Dontae Pollard (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.) was one of four Mitchell players in double figures with a team-high 24 points while Jaylyn Clardy (Pensacola, Fla.) added 20, Wilton Causey (Worcester, Mass.) 15 and Elijah Miller (Ellington, Conn.) 11 for the Mariners. Pollard led the way with eight rebounds while Miller had a team-high six assists. Pollard, the only Mariner senior, was honored in a pregame ceremony.

The Mariners shot 44.6 percent (29 of 65) from the field and connected on 12 of 24 from 3-point range.

Norwich shot a sizzling 52.6 percent (30 of 57) while making six of 13 from behind the arc.

The Mariners took an early 7-2 lead. Norwich would tie it for the first time
15-15 with 11:11 left in the first half. Mitchell would score five of the next six taking a 21-16 lead with 10:14 remaining in the half. The Mariners led 36-33 at the half.

In the back and forth second half, the game was tied 72-72 with 5:29 left before the Cadets scored four straight to take a 76-72 lead with 3:30 left.

Robert Zirlis made a pair of free throws with 1:36 left to cut the deficit to 79-78 with 1:36 left before back-to-back layups by Norwich pushed the lead to 83-78 with 44 seconds left.

Pollard drilled a 3-pointer with seven seconds left to cut the deficit to 85-83 before Norwich's Jalen Oliverio made a free throw with three seconds left and the Mariners turned the ball over to end the game.