MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury College men’s basketball team won two NESCAC game and one non-league game to improve to 11-3, 3-1 in NESCAC play. The Panthers are ranked No. 16 in NCAA Division III, and their 3-1 league mark is good for a second-place tie with Williams and Tufts behind first-place Hamilton (3-0).
The Panthers will host No. 11 Williams, which lost to Tufts this past Friday, on Saturday at 3 p.m. in a rematch of both the 2017 NESCAC final and an NCAA Elite Eight matchup.
On this past Friday the Panthers got past visiting Bates, 82-76, as Jack Daly scored a career-high 26 points, including four in the final 16 seconds. The Bobcats are 8-8, 2-2 in league play.
Bates held a 12-point lead late in the first half, but Middlebury scored the final four points of the first half to pull within 43-35 at the break.  
Middlebury tied the game at 48-48 on a three by Hilal Dahleh with 16:34 left, and a layup from Griffin Kornaker pushed the Panther lead to seven with less than 11 minutes to go. Bates fought back to within 71-70 on two free throws from Jeff Spellman with 2:32 left.
Bates still trailed by 77-76 with 25 seconds left and fouled Matt Folger, who sank the first one, but missed the second. Daly scrapped for the rebound, putting it back in for an 80-76 lead. After a missed three by Bates, Daly sank two free throws for the final score.
Daly added game highs of nine rebounds and eight assists. Folger finished with 15 points and six boards, while Nick Tarantino chipped in with 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots. Eric McCord pulled down eight rebounds and added three blocks off the bench. The Panthers outrebounded Bates, 45-28.
Spellman paced the Bobcats with 21 points and six assists, and Mortimer contributed 20 points and six rebounds.
On Saturday the Panthers broke open a close game with a 14-0 second-half run to defeat Tufts, 78-63. The Jumbos fell to 12-4.
Tufts led at the break, but Middlebury scored the first four points of the second half and never trailed again. But KJ Garrett’s three-point play pulled the Jumbos to within 52-51 at 13:15.
Then the Panthers slowly pulled away over the next 7:07. Eric McCord scored four points inside during the surge, and Daley capped it their 14-0 run with two free throws at 6:08. The Jumbos came no closer than eight points the rest of the way. 
 Daly led the Panthers with 16 points and six assists to go along with seven rebounds, while Folger added 15 points and eight boards. McCord had 13 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Griffin Kornaker handed out a career-high six assists.
Garrett paced the Jumbos with 20 points and nine rebounds in 24 minutes. Vincent Pace, the NESCAC’s leading scorer at over 18 points per game, was held to just two points on 1-9 shooting. The Panthers outrebounded the Jumbos, 70-41.
On Tuesday, Middlebury needed overtime in a 77-73 win over visiting Albertus Magnus (9-4). Middlebury took its biggest lead, 57-47, on a Tarantino dunk with 8:37 left in regulation. The Panthers still led by 64-56 advantage on another Tarantino hoop at 4:56.
But the Falcons scored the final eight points of regulation, including a pair of free throws from Jaqhawn Walters with 20 ticks left that tied the score at 66-66. 
With the overtime score tied at 71-71, the Panthers took the lead for good on a Daly fastbreak layup with 1:22 left. A bucket from Dahleh at 0:26 seconds remaining and two Daly free throws sealed the win.
Daly led the Panthers with 22 points, nine assists and three steals to go along with five rebounds, Matt Folger, Dahleh and Joey Leighton each had nine points. McCord recorded eight points and 12 rebounds, while Tarantino finished with nine rebounds and four blocked shots. With his nine assists, Daly eclipsed the 500-career assist plateau with 506.
Walters paced the Falcons with 25 points and 12 rebounds, while A’Jen English added 19 points, including five threes.