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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Men’s Basketball Heartbroken at Final Buzzer in NESCAC

The men’s basketball season ended in disappointment with a 78-75 loss in the NESCAC semifinals against Williams on Saturday, March 1.

Knowing they needed a win to extend their season, the Panthers had arguably their best offensive first half of the season, scoring 50 points against the number-nine Ephs. Middlebury could not keep up its hot shooting from the first half after the break, however, and Williams outscored the Panthers by 14 in the second half to win the game.

This season will be the first since 2006-2007 that Middlebury will not compete in the NCAA tournament. After starting the season 6-5, the Panthers partially righted the ship and finished 17-9. Of those final four losses, three came by a total of eight points, and two of those came at the hands of Williams.

All season long, the Panthers seemed to be plagued by an inability to close out halftime leads, a blemish to which Head Coach Jeff Brown admitted.

“The biggest thing for us was really not having tremendous balance as an offensive team,” Jeff Brown said. “At times, when things cranked up and we got into more of a half court team, we really lacked the close to the basket attack that would get us to the free throw line and get some easy baskets.”

In the Williams game, the two teams battled neck-and-neck for much of the first half. With 6:43 remaining in the game a Hayden Rooke-Ley three-pointer gave Williams a four-point advantage. Rooke-Ley was inactive the last time these two teams met, but the senior guard had a major impact in this contest, scoring 14 points off the bench.

“He’s a very tough competitor,” Jeff Brown said, “He’s able to drive the ball to the basket. More importantly, defensively, he’s really a hard-nosed, competitive player, and I think his presence on the floor certainly made a difference for them over the stretch run.”

Michael Mayer, Williams’ all-conference center, established his dominance early in the contest, sinking three of the Ephs’ first four shots. Mayer finished the night with a game-high 27 points to go along with seven rebounds.

“Williams’ philosophy offensively is to run their offense through their five-man,” Jeff Brown said, “and he’s an ideal player for that style because he can pass…and post-up with an array of offensive moves.”

After the triple from Rooke-Ley, things started to roll for the Panthers, who finished the first half on a 20-5 run, with the only Williams’ points coming from Mayer. Captain Joey Kizel ’14 had an astounding 19 first-half points. Dylan Sinnickson ’15 also had a big first half, scoring nine, while Jake Brown ’17 chipped in seven off the bench.

All told, Middlebury shot 64.5 percent from the floor and 71.4 percent from deep, where Kizel went 5-6, in the first half, far outpacing Williams’ still-impressive 42.4 percent shooting from the floor and 44.4 percent from beyond the arc.

Last time these two teams met, Middlebury held a 16-point lead at halftime, but a significant decline in outside shooting from the Panthers and Williams’ ability to make a lot of free throws down the stretch combined to allow the Ephs to pull away for a three-point win. The story was much the same on Saturday. Middlebury shot just 28.6 percent from the floor and 18.2 percent from deep in the second half, while Williams got to the charity stripe 22 times in the second half and hit 18 free throws.

“They increased their defensive pressure [in the second half] and really kind of controlled us,” Jeff Brown said. “I think the biggest factor was the differential from the free throw line.”

“We didn’t make any defensive adjustments at the half and Williams clearly did because we only scored 25 second half points,” Matt Daley ’16 said. “They didn’t allow us to get open looks from three point land because we hit 10 in the first half.”

Sinnickson made a lay-up to open the second half and extended the Panthers’ lead to 13, but Williams consistently chipped away over the next 13 minutes, finally tying the contest at 64-64 on a pair of Mayer free throws with 7:27 remaining.

Down two with just over a minute remaining, Middlebury ran a poor offensive possession, but James Jensen ’14 kept the Panthers’ hopes alive by knocking down an uncharacteristic jumper, tying the game at 73-73.

A foul on the ensuing possession led to a pair of free throws from Rooke-Ley. Kizel then missed a three-pointer and – after Jensen committed the necessary foul – Williams first-year Duncan Robinson made it a three-point game by hitting 1-2 free throws. On the other end, Kizel forced a foul from Rooke-Ley, who appeared to commit the foul unintentionally, but the move worked out for Williams because it took away the opportunity for Kizel to attempt a game-tying three-pointer.

Kizel hit both of his free throws to draw within one before a pair of free throws extended the Williams lead back to three. On the final possession, Kizel had just six seconds to bring the ball up the floor, and could only muster a deep, contested three-pointer that did not find the net.

“Saturday’s game looked very similar to most of the games we played this year,” Daley said. “Unfortunately that is what happens when you rely almost entirely on the three point shot...This was a trend that will not continue next year.”

Kizel leaves the basketball program with 1493 career points, good for fourth all-time on the Middlebury scoring list, just five behind Kevin Kelleher ’80. Additionally, Kizel exits as the all-time leader in three-point percentage and free throw percentage.

The responsibility of filling the void left by Kizel next year will fall to Jake Brown, who saw extensive minutes as the team’s point guard this season.

“He certainly showed during the stretch run that he’s capable of running the team,” Jeff Brown said, “We’re really high on his potential next year to energize our offense and also to be able to score some points himself.”

As a class, the team’s six seniors – Kizel, Jensen, Jack Roberts ’14, Nate Bulluck ’14, Albert Nascimento ’14 and Luis Alvarez ’14 – finish with a 96-19 record overall, 31-8 in the NESCAC, four NESCAC tournament appearances, three NCAA tournament appearances and one NESCAC championship.

Jeff Brown looked back fondly on what the class of ’14 has accomplished.

“A tremendous amount of effort and unselfishness with the group,” Jeff Brown said, “Jack and James, probably two of our best defensive players on this year’s team, really did a lot of the quiet stuff in the background for the program. They are just a real, real special group.”


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