CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- The Mitchell College men's basketball team erased a double-digit deficit in the final minutes of Thursday's contest at Wheelock College to post an 83-82 victory in New England Collegiate Conference action at Brunelli Court.
The Mariners trailed by 11 with 3:17 remaining in the contest before outscoring the Wildcats 15-3 down the stretch. Frank Martin scored seven of the 15 points over the final three minutes, including the game-winning shot with two seconds to play. Martin finished with 14 points on 6-for-7 shooting and added two assists and a steal.
The win was Mitchell's second in a row and third in four games. The Mariners improved to 4-7 overall and evened their conference mark at 2-2.
Martin was one of five players in double figures for Mitchell. Joshua Ford paced the Mariners with 17 points while Parris Hill notched a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Donavan McClean and Devonta Mosley each chipped in with 14 points, the latter coming off the bench to turn in a season-high 32 minutes.
Anthony Williams and Drew Fournier carried the offensive load for Wheelock. Williams poured in 30 points on 14-for-18 shooting while Fournier contributed with 22 points and five assists. Point guard Nicholas Fenton handed out a game-high 10 assists and added eight points.
Wheelock held a 42-37 lead at halftime after a superb performance from Williams in the opening half. He was a perfect 8-for-8 from the floor in the stanza and had 16 points at intermission. The Wildcats never trailed in the half and led by as many as 15 points before Mitchell--behind the group of Mosley, Alex Pires, Alan Morgan, Hector Aleman and Wyatt Springer--whittled the deficit down to five.
Wheelock led throughout the second half but saw the margin melt to four with 4:37 to go. The Wildcats responded with a 9-2 run to bump the lead back to double digits at 79-68 following a three-point play by Matt Eason.
Mitchell answered right back as Martin buried his only three-pointer of the contest. The Mariners then gathered a Wheelock miss and went inside to Mosley for a layup, and Martin followed with a steal and feed to Ford for another basket. The seven-point swing took only 49 seconds and cut the deficit to four with 2:11 remaining.
After Wheelock got a free throw from Fournier to bump the lead back to five, Ford converted on back-to-back attempts to make it a one-point game with 56 seconds to play. Ford then made a steal on the defensive end and, after a big offensive rebound from Martin, the Mariners took their first lead at 81-80 thanks to a bucket from McClean.
With 34 ticks still left on the clock, Wheelock went inside to Williams who missed his initial attempt but was fouled on his putback. He calmly sank both free throws to put the Wildcats back up by a point with 27 seconds remaining.
Mitchell brought the clock down to eight seconds before calling a timeout to set up the final play. The ensuing inbounds pass found Martin at the top of the key, and he dribbled more time off the clock before penetrating into the lane and pulling up for the game-winning jumper. With less than two seconds left on the clock, all Wheelock could attempt was a long pass that didn't yield a shot attempt.
Mitchell will next host Lesley University on Saturday, January 17 at 3:30 p.m.