The Middlebury men's basketball team suffered an 83-70 road loss at #19 Amherst (19-4, 7-2) on Friday night. Despite the loss, the Panthers have wrapped up a home NESCAC Quarterfinal game next Saturday. Middlebury (14-9, 6-3) wraps up its regular season on Saturday when it visits Trinity for a 3:00 p.m. tip-off.

Amherst's Jeff Racy was 6-6 from three-point range and finished with a team-high 18 points to help spark the Purple & White. Amherst shot 51.7% from the floor and 35.7% from long distance, leading by as many as 15 points in the first half. Johnny McCarthy hit on 7-13 from the field and logged 17 points, while Connor Green was 6-13 shooting and finished with 15 points.

Middlebury was led by Matt St. Amour, who finished with a game-high 20 points, and hauled in a game-best seven rebounds. Adisa Majors followed with 18 points and six boards, while Jake Brown netted nine points. Jack Daly chipped in five assists, while Zach Baines totaled seven points off the bench.

In a closely-contested start to the first half that saw the sides battle to a 12-12 deadlock after 5:15 of action, Amherst quickly mounted a nine-point lead. David George muscled in a layup, and picked up a dunk on an offensive rebound, making the ensuing free throw after being fouled on the play. Racy swished a trey, and McCarthy hit 1-2 free throws to give the Purple & White a 21-12 lead with 12:15 left to play in the opening half.

Holding a 28-20 advantage, Amherst extended its cushion to 15 points when Michael Riopel delivered a layup, followed by a strike from three-point range from McCarthy. Green capped the surge with a bucket in the paint to give the hosts a 35-20 lead with 5:07 to play in the stanza.

The Panthers scored 13 of the final 19 points of the first half to close to within seven at intermission (41-33), highlighted by five points from St. Amour.

The second 20 minutes saw Middlebury narrow its deficit to six (41-35) on a layup by Majors 39 seconds into the period, but a Racy triple allowed the Purple & White to keep a comfortable lead.

St. Amour drained a three-pointer at the 9:53 mark to again shrink the Panthers' deficit to six (56-50), but Amherst used a 9-2 run, fueled by another Racy swish from long distance, to help the Purple & White stake a 65-52 lead with 7:47 remaining in the game.

Following a layup and a free throw by Brown which pulled Middlebury to within nine (71-62) with 3:13 to play, Racy delivered two more clutch free throws to help thwart the Panthers' comeback efforts.

The Purple & White used a 12-8 run over the final 3:13 and held the visitors scoreless in the final 1:23 of the contest to seal the 83-70 win.