HARTFORD — Fourth-seeded Trinity on Saturday eliminated the No. 5 Middlebury College men’s basketball team from the NESCAC tournament, 100-82.
The 20-5 Panthers, who have spent much of the season ranked in the top 10 in NCAA Division III polls and are undefeated in non-league competition, will hope for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament when the field is announced this coming Monday afternoon.
On this past Saturday the Bantams (17-8) used an early 12-2 run to take a 12-7 lead and never trailed again. The Panthers were still within five at 21-16 when Trinity went on an 11-3 run to push its advantage to 31-19.
Panther guard Jack Farrell hit a layup to make it 32-25, but the Bantams stretched the lead to 48-34 at the half and Middlebury never came within single digits in the second half.
Farrell led the Panthers with 29 points and moved up to 16th on Middlebury’s all-time scoring list with 1,068, passing 2018 graduate Jack Daly (1,067). Tommy Eastman recorded 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds, while Griffin Kornaker dished out six assists and Max Bosco scored 11.
Joseph Bell scored 23 points for Trinity, while Kyle Padmore scored 19 points and added a game-high 12 assists.