Middlebury held off a late surge by Wesleyan, picking up an 86-74 NESCAC men's basketball quarterfinal win inside a raucous Pepin Gymnasium. Fourth-seeded Middlebury (15-10) advances to play top-seeded Trinity next weekend in Connecticut at 2:00 p.m. The other conference semifinal features #3 Tufts and #2 Amherst at 4:00 p.m.

Middlebury, who never trailed in the game, saw the Cardinals cut the lead to a pair (7-5) with 16:40 left on a jumper from inside the paint by Rashid Epps. On the Panthers' ensuing possession, a layup from Connor Huff ignited an 8-0 run over the next 1:15, giving the home team a 15-5 edge with 15:10 remaining. Highlighting the spurt was a pair of three-point field goals from Matt St. Amour.

Wesleyan answered with a shot from beyond the arc by Nathan Krill on its next trip down the floor, but Middlebury responded with a quick 6-0 run. Layups by Matt Daley sandwiched around a jumper from St. Amour gave the Panthers their largest lead of the opening half at 13 (21-8).

The Cardinals slowly chipped away at the deficit, pulling to within seven at 32-25 on a three-pointer from Jack Mackey at the 5:39 mark, but a quick five points on a jumper by Eric McCord and a three from Huff pushed the Panther edge back to 12 (37-25) with 4:26 left. The hosts maintained a near double-digit lead for the remainder of the half, as a jumper from Zach Baines gave Middlebury a 45-32 advantage heading into the locker room.

St. Amour led the Panther offense in the opening half scoring 19 points on 6-11 shooting, including 4-7 from beyond the arc.

Both teams went back and forth early on in the opening minutes of the second half, as Middlebury possessed between a 10 and 15-point lead for the first 11:52. With 8:08 remaining in regulation, Harry Rafferty knocked down a shot from beyond the arc to cut the Cardinal deficit to single digits (65-58). Minutes later, a layup by Krill capped off a 10-3 Wesleyan run as the visitors drew to within five at 68-63 with 5:47 to play.

Trading points over the next few minutes, Mackey and BJ Davis brought the visitors to within five (79-74) by connecting on deep three-pointers with 1:09 left, but the Panthers hit 5-6 of their free throws over the 51 seconds and held Wesleyan scoreless for the victory.

St. Amour led Middlebury with a game-high 23 points on 8-18 shooting, including 4-10 from behind the arc, to go along with six rebounds and three assists. Adisa Majors tied a career-high with 18 points off the bench in 19 minutes on 7-10 shooting and tied for game-high honors with eight rebounds, while Jake Brown finished with 11 points and game-bests of seven assists and four steals. Baines ended his day with seven points and a season-best four blocked shots.

Rafferty led the Cardinals with 19 points on 7-9 from the field with a trio of threes, while Mackey added 13 points with a team-high four assists. Krill was the other Cardinal in double figures with 12 points, while Joseph Kuo tied Majors pulling down eight boards.