The Mitchell College men's basketball team made school history Tuesday night, beating Connecticut College for the first time.

The dynamic duo of Joshua Ford and Parris Hill combined for 52 points and 26 rebounds to power the Mariners to an 81-75 victory at Luce Fieldhouse.

The Camels had no defensive answer for Ford, who's favored to repeat as New England Collegiate Conference Player of the Year.

Ford finished with a game-high 28 points, 13 rebounds, five steals and four assists in 38 minutes.

"Congratulations to Mitchell on a well-earned win," Conn coach Tom Satran said. "From our end, obviously we are disappointed in our play, particularly our rebounding and decision making."

The game remained tight from start to finish. Conn took a 37-35 lead at halftime and increased its advantage to 64-55.

Mitchell chipped away, taking the lead for good (73-70) on Anthony Epps' 3-pointer with 2:19 remaining. Hill, who had 24 points and 13 rebounds, made two free throws with one second left to close out the win.

The Camels went cold late in the second half, scoring just one field goal in the final 7:46 and shooting 40.6 percent overall. The Mariners converted 47 percent.

Freshman Alex Hall came off the bench to score a team-high 21 points for Conn (9-12), which lost for the seventh time in nine games.

Matt Vadas added 20 points to close within 19 points of setting the program's all-time scoring record while Zuri Pavlin had 12 points and 16 rebounds.

Epps finished with 13 points for the Mariners.

The Mariners (16-5) are having their best regular season since moving to Division III. They've already surpassed their previous best win total of 14 set last season.

They are in first place in the NECC with three regular season games to go and return to conference action on Saturday with a road game at Southern Vermont.

Conn College, meanwhile, closes out its regular season with a pair of weekend home games against Williams (Friday at 8 p.m.) and Hamilton (Saturday at 4 p.m.)

- Day Staff Reports