Yearsley scores his 1,000th point but Men’s Basketball falls to Norwich 77-76
North Adams, MA- Noah Yearsley scored 23 points including his 1,000th but the Trailblazers fell to visiting Norwich University 77-76 tonight in both team's season opener at the Amsler Campus Center. With the win the Cadets improve to 1-0 while MCLA falls to 0-1.
The Trailblazers got out to an early 14-6 lead when Yearsley hit a 3-pointer forcing a Norwich timeout just over 4 minutes into the game. From there points were at premium but Norwich was able to answer back with a 12-4 stretch of their own catching MCLA at 18-18 on a Nick Graves layup at the 8:43 mark.
The two teams would find themselves tied again at 29-29 with 2:43 left in the half but Norwich would finish the half on an 8-3 run to take a 37-32 lead into the locker room.
The Cadets would stretch the lead to nine at 49-40 at the 16-minute mark but a jumper and two free throws by Yearsley would cut the lead to five and give the longtime Trailblazer his 1,000th career point.
Norwich would make a push and would enjoy a double-digit lead over the next ten minutes.
Down 67-56 with just over five minutes to play, a deep Dylan Morris-Gray 3-pointer late in the shot clock would ignite MCLA sparking a furious comeback that was culminated by a Yearsley layup giving the Trailblazers a 76-75 lead with just 15 seconds left to play.
Following a timeout, the Cadets would see Kohlby Murray drive baseline and find a wide-open Owen Liss who was cutting to the basket and able throw down an uncontested dunk with just 2 seconds left. MCLA's inbound pass would be intercepted by Norwich and the Cadets were able to secure the 77-76 opening night victory.
Liss led Norwich with 23 points and chipped in 6 rebounds. Teammates Kohlby Murray with 16 points and Donavan Lewis with 11 points and 6 rebounds also had strong games.
For MCLA, Yearsley and Morris-Gray led the way each scoring 23 with sophomores Korey Greenland (11 points) and JoJo Garcia (10 points) both reaching double digits. Mamadou Diallo finished with a game-high 8 rebounds.
Norwich dominated MCLA in the paint outscoring the home team 50-30 leading to the Cadets to shoot 58.2% from the field for the game. MCLA shot 41.5% from the filed including 7-24 from beyond the arc.
Norwich will next travel to NVU Johnson on Thursday evening while MCLA will next host SUNY Plattsburgh this Friday at 2pm.