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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Men’s Basketball Dances Into Sweet 16 With 67-63 Victory

 

The Middlebury men’s basketball team (24-3) advanced to the Sweet 16 for the third consecutive season after a 67-63 win at Cortland State on Saturday, March 9. The Panthers handed the Red Dragons their first home loss of the season, ousting the 23rd-ranked team nationally in the process.

Junior guard Joey Kizel ’14 controlled the game offensively for the visitors, pacing the Panthers with 11 points in either half, and employing a dazzling array of scoring moves. Kizel, who is averaging 14.2 points per game this season, has been on a tear over the last month, scoring more than 20 points per game in his last five games.

“It’s pretty mental, confidence-wise,” Kizel said of his play of late. “Depending on the way defenses are playing I’ll impact the game — I’m not going to force anything. If I start making shots, it’s going to be very hard for defenses to contain us.”

Middlebury knocked down open shots on the first two possessions of the game — one an 18-foot jump shot from 6’8’’ forward Jack Roberts, the next a long pull-up three-pointer from Kizel.

Cortland, which entered the game 13-0 at Whitney T. Corey Gymnasium this season, gradually found a rhythm offensively, capitalizing on a number of errant, long-range shots from Middlebury early in the shot clock to find passing lanes in transition. Red Dragons’ guard Harrison Hefele was the primary beneficiary of his team’s up-tempo play and good ball movement early on, scoring five consecutive points, including a three from the left wing.

Both teams traded baskets early as the game witnessed six lead changes in the first 8:06 of play. Ten early points from Cortland forward Brian McMahon, including a pair of dunks, spurred the Red Dragons to a 23-17 lead with 8:08 remaining in the first half.

Middlebury then engineered a furious 19-4 run to end the first half, heading into the halftime tunnel with a 36-27 lead as Kizel scored eight points over the final 5:24 of the half.

James Jensen ’14 added nine points of his own in just nine minutes off the bench as the junior swingman consistently attacked the rim offensively while affecting long-range attempts with his length defensively. Jensen notched the first double-double of his Middlebury career, finishing the game with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

“Last year [Jensen] impacted the game in so many different ways, but his shot wasn’t there, and now that’s not holding him back,” Kizel said. His shooting ability has given him a lot of confidence. If teams are giving him an open shot, he wants to knock it down. That makes defenses guard him and respect his shot and then he’s able to drive past them which is definitely a huge strength of his game.”

The Red Dragons struggled to make outside shots despite good looks as guard Jeremy Smith, the team’s leading scorer and a 43-percent, three-point shooter on the season, finished the first half 1-7 from the floor, and 1-4 from beyond the arc. McMahon, however, wreaked havoc in the first half, pulling down eight boards and recording two blocks in addition to his 10 points on five of seven shooting.

Cortland shot just 41 percent as a team in the first half as Middlebury held the hosts to just eight three-point attempts in the first half, far below their 24-attempt pace per game. The Red Dragons also failed to get to the free throw line in the first half, all of which culminated in the nine-point half-time deficit.

For the Panthers, Saturday’s game marked the second straight week that they led by nine or more points at the half, and the second straight week they saw their lead disappear in a matter of minutes.

The hosts opened the second half on a 7-2 run, cutting the Middlebury lead to four. As McMahon scored his team’s first seven points of the second half, giving him 17 points in just 22 minutes of play, while shooting 8-10 from the field.

The Panthers extended the lead back to eight as five different players scored to open the second half. At the 13:20 mark, however, the Red Dragons launched their assault, outscoring Middlebury 17-2 over the next 5:34 to take a 55-48 lead with 8:53 remaining in the game. McMahon and Cortland’s senior point guard Jesse Winter sparked the run, scoring 14 of the team’s 19 points over a 6:02 span.

With his team trailing by seven and less than nine minutes remaining, tri-captain Jake Wolfin ’13 made the seminal play of the game, stepping into a shot at the top of the arc and knocking down a straightaway three off a perfect feed from Kizel. Prior to the make, Wolfin was 0-7 from the floor, but rebounded to sink the game’s decisive shot.

“[Losing by] seven there, if we don’t score on that possession and they score, the game goes in a different direction,” Wolfin said. “Throughout my career I’ve loved to take big shots and my team has had the confidence in me to take those shots. Joey gave me a great pass and I was open and the shot went in and that started a 5-0 spurt for me and a 5-0 spurt for us that was really important in the game.”

Wolfin struck again just over a minute later; after deflecting an entry pass intended for McMahon into the air, he collected the loose ball and took it the ball coast-to-coast, where he finished between a pair of closing Cortland defenders.

“A big focus of our preparation for Cortland State was on the defensive end,”  said Wolfin. “On a lot of their sets they swung the ball up to the big guy at the top of the key, so I read the defenders eyes, jumped the pass and was lucky enough to get a deflection and finish the play. I took a gamble on defense and it was a big part of the game so I’m glad it worked out.”

McMahon responded on the Red Dragons’ next possession with another basket in the lane to extend the lead back to four with 6:59 remaining, giving the junior, and the nation’s second-most efficient scorer, 24 points for the game. It was McMahon’s final basket of the game, however, as Middlebury outscored Cortland 14-6 down the stretch.

After tri-captain Nolan Thompson ’13 and Jensen combined to make three of four free throws, Kizel gave Middlebury its first lead since the 11:02 mark, banking an off-balance runner off the glass and in, all the while falling away from the basket.

Now trailing by one, Cortland entered the ball to McMahon. The Panthers collapsed on the 6’6’’ forward, but once again McMahon got the better of them, this time with his passing, as he found a wide-open teammate at the top of the key who buried the three.

Kizel continued to attack the rim, this time drawing contact and earning a trip to the free throw line. The New Jersey native sank the pair to tie the game again at 60. On the ensuing Cortland possession, the Red Dragons had two good looks from three, but neither shot fell, giving Middlebury another chance to take the lead.

This time the Panthers swung the ball around the perimeter and entered the ball into the post with tri-captain Peter Lynch ’13, the team’s leading scorer on the season. While Lynch had been contained for much of the afternoon, on this occasion he pirouetted his way inside and finished over his defender.

On the following possession, Cortland’s shifty guard Jesse Winter slithered past Thompson, but couldn’t convert the layup. On the other end, Kizel drew contact again and sank two more free throws to give his team a 64-60 lead with 49 seconds remaining.

After another missed three from the trailing team, Kizel had an opportunity to ice the game. At the line with 27 seconds to go and leading by four, the 79-percent free throw shooter made only one of two, however. The Red Dragons then responded with a made three from the right wing to cut the Middlebury lead back to two with 17 seconds remaining.

Cortland, desperate for a turnover, forced Middlebury to burn two timeouts before Thompson finally located Lynch on an inbound pass.

With 12 seconds remaining in the game Lynch stepped to the line and drained both free throws, sealing the victory for his team.

“Those were two of the biggest free throws all year,” Kizel said. “Because if he misses one, we’re back in the same situation [up three with seconds remaining] that we were in against Curry, Amherst and Wesleyan. So we’d really prefer not to be in that situation. Up four versus up three is a huge difference.”

“It was our first signature win,” Wolfin said. “For us to [win at] Cortland State where they hadn’t lost all year shows the character of our team — how tough, how gritty we are. We did a great job closing out a team that easily could have made a run in this tournament. It means a lot going forward.”

With the victory Jeff Brown’s team advanced to the Sweet 16 for the third time in the past three years, something only two other schools have accomplished in that time.

The Panthers host Ithaca College (21-8) on Saturday, March 16. A win would advance Middlebury to the Elite Eight and a return to Salem, Va., where the Panthers were a Final Four team in 2011.


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