The Middlebury men’s basketball team won one of three games this week, defeating Keene State on Tuesday, Feb. 3, before falling to Colby on Friday, Feb. 6 and Bowdoin on Sunday, Feb. 8 in its two NESCAC games.
Playing host to Keene State on Tuesday, the Panthers fought off a slow start to pull away from the visiting Owls and win 96-83.
Keene State opened an early 12-6 lead only to see Hunter Merryman ’15 and Dylan Sinnickson ’15 hit threes on consecutive possessions to tie the contest. Twice more the Owls built leads of seven and six by converting five Middlebury turnovers into 10 points in an eight-minute span, but the Panthers responded with spurts of their own to knot the game at 27, and eventually took a 41-33 lead into the halfway point.
A foul on Keene State 13 seconds into the second half seemed to epitomize the tone for the rest of the game (the teams combined to commit 22 fouls and shoot 35 free throws in the second half), and neither team could make any headway for much of the period.
After Keene State’s Tom Doyle knocked down two free throws to make it a 74-68 Middlebury lead with just over six minutes left, a Merryman three once again sparked an 11-4 Middlebury run that proved to be decisive as the Owls could never again get the lead into single digits again. Behind a robust 23 points from the foul line and a 56% from the field, the Panthers gathered a 96-83 win.
“We settled in and started making better decisions,” Captain Dean Brierley ’15 said. “We’ve had some spurts of turnover prone play this year. Against Keene State, we were able to deliver the balls to open teammates. That comes from good ball movement and good decision making.”
Merryman and Sinnickson seemed to be the open teammates for most of the night as the Panthers’ leading scorers did just that against the Owls, both tallying a game-high 27 points. Jake Brown ’17 added 11 points of his own while assisting on six other baskets, and Nick Tarantino ’18 scored two points and controlled the boards, grabbing 13 rebounds in only 18 minutes.
The Panthers were on the road in the NESCAC on Friday, falling to Colby in heartbreaking fashion 84-80.
Merryman opened the scoring with a layup to give his team a 2-0 lead, but it was the team’s only lead of the game as Colby quickly tied and took the lead 17 seconds later on an old-fashioned three point play. The Panthers just couldn’t defend behind the arc in the first half, and the Mules knocked down 9-18 from three to build a 48-40 halftime lead.
Like Brierley said, “When you can’t defend, it’s difficult to win games.”
For much of the second half, Colby kept Middlebury at an arm’s length and threatened to pull away, going up by 10 more than once, but the Panthers wouldn’t cave. With 56 seconds left in the contest, Brierley capped off a 15-6 Middlebury by converting a traditional three-point play of his own to tie the game at 79. Off a Colby timeout, the Mules’ Luke Westman drew a foul and calmly knocked down two free throws to regain the lead. The Panthers’ Matt St. Amour ’17 had a chance to answer at the other foul line but missed his second attempt, and Colby sealed an 84-80 victory at the foul line to move to 13-9 overall and 4-4 in the NESCAC.
St. Amour scored 18 to lead the Panthers offensively, while Jake Brown ’17 stuffed the stat sheet, tallying 13 points, seven assists, four steals and three rebounds. After his monster game against Keene State, first-year Tarantino earned his first start in the blue and white, playing 13 minutes.
Middlebury had its second NESCAC game in Maine of the weekend on Sunday, losing to Bowdoin 88-70.
It seemed like the Panthers didn’t have anything left in the tank in its third game of the week after the tough loss as they quickly fell behind 12-3. The team showed some fight cutting the lead to two with 8:48 left in the opening period, but the Polar Bears were having none of it, building a 45-35 halftime lead.
In an effort to spark his team, Coach Brown gave Matt Daley ’17 the nod to start the second half at center, and he responded with four quick points to make it a six-point game. After keeping the game within reach over the next five minutes, the Panthers seemed to finally run out of gas, and Bowdoin pushed its lead to 21, 84-63, with just over five minutes left in the contest, before winning 88-70 and pushing its record to 15-6 overall and 5-3 in the NESCAC.
For the second straight game, St. Amour led the Panthers in scoring with 23 on 9-12 shooting. Sinnickson and Daley were the other Panthers in double figures with 13 and 10 respectively.
One win and two losses brings Middlebury to 15-6 on the season and 3-5 in the NESCAC. This week the Panthers play three home games, including non-conference foe Lyndon State on Tuesday, Jan. 10, and NESCAC rivals Trinity and Amherst on Friday, Jan. 13 and Sunday, Jan. 15 respectively.
Currently sitting eighth in the conference standings, the Panthers will have to hold their current position in order to secure the final berth in the NESCAC postseason tournament. Doing so will likely require the team to knock off either Trinity or Amherst — the first and third-seeded teams in the conference, respectively — in order to extend their season.
If they are unable to do so, it would be the first time since the 2005-2006 season that the Panthers failed to qualify for the NESCAC postseason. The team is already virtually assured of missing the NCAA tournament during back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2006-2007.
“This is a big week for us, but we’re up for the challenge,” Brierley said.
