Episcopal knocks down threes with ease

Saturday, February 22, 2014

William Pollock drilled a three-pointer from the left corner 13 seconds into Friday’s district tournament championship game, establishing what would be an overwhelming theme of Episcopal Collegiate’s 70-46 rout of Mayflower.

Pollock, the only senior in the Wildcats’ starting lineup, hit all five of his three-point attempts and added a pair of layups in the final quarter to finish with 19 points. Junior guard Mahlon Martin led Episcopal with 20 points, and sophomore guard Kelvin Robinson chipped in with 18.

Normally a role player for the Wildcats (21-3), Pollock said Friday’s game was his best shooting night of the season.

“Sometimes it is frustrating being the fourth guard out there, but playing with a great team, I’ve got to play a role,” Pollock said. “My role is to get open and hit the shot when I’m open. I look at an opportunity and I take it.”

“[Pollock] shot it well tonight, and he’s been shooting it well the last couple of weeks,” Episcopal Coach Micah Marsh said. “Mahlon shot it well in the first half and that kept us on top, but when William is shooting it well and when you have good quick guard who can penetrate and find him, good things can happen.”

Episcopal, which plays Bald Knob in the regional tournament at Benton Harmony Grove on Wednesday, scored the first seven points in Friday’s game and led 19-14 at the end of the first quarter. By halftime, the Wildcats’ lead had swelled to 31-20, despite hitting only 4 of 16 field-goal attempts in the second quarter.

Mayflower junior J.P. Perry scored nine points in the first quarter, but he also collected his third foul seven minutes into the game. Perry did not play in the second quarter and he wound up with a team-high 15 points and five assists.

Mayflower (21-6) finished by hitting only 18 of 51 shots from the floor. The Eagles were out rebounded 40-33.

“When you hold a team like Mayflower to 46 points, you’ll usually beat a good team like that,” Marsh said. “I thought defensively we played really, really well. [Perry] got into foul trouble early and that hurt them quite a bit, but beyond that I thought our defense was really good tonight.”

Episcopal entered the final quarter holding a 47-36 advantage, but back-to-back layups by Pollock and Robinson pushed the Wildcats’ lead to 51-36 and the Eagles were never any closer than 12 the rest of the way.

Mayflower was held scoreless for the game’s final 3:35and Episcopal scored the game’s final 11 points.

Hayden Long added 10 points for Mayflower. Justin Bailey scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Eagles, who will play Barton on Thursday in the regional tournament.

Allie Freeman handed out six assists and had five steals for the Wildcats. Justin Gooseberry collected 13 rebounds for Episcopal.

Sports, Pages 22 on 02/22/2014