The Middlebury men's basketball team advanced to the NESCAC Championship game for the fifth time after knocking off top-seeded Trinity (19-7) by a 70-58 score in a game played at Oosting Gym in Connecticut. The fourth-seeded Panthers (16-10) will meet #2 Amherst, an 86-83 winner over #3 Tufts, in the championship game at noon on Sunday. Middlebury returns to the title game for the first time since 2012, when it capped a four-year run after earning titles in 2009 and 2011.

The Panthers jumped out to the early lead scoring the first six points of the contest. Matt Daley made consecutive baskets and Matt St. Amour followed with another for a 6-0 advantage. The 22nd-ranked Bantams took their first lead of the game at 23-20, as Arthur Jeremy sank a three-pointer in the latter stages of the half.

Middlebury closed out the opening 20 minutes strong with a 14-2 run. Adisa Majors knocked down a free throw to close the margin to 23-21, while St. Amour drained a three-pointer just over a minute later to put the visitors back in front 24-23 with 5:14 left in the half. The run continued through the rest of the period with Zach Baines making a layup in the final minute for 34-25 lead.

The Panthers duplicated their start of the game in the second half scoring the first six points of the new period. Jake Brown hit two shots from the floor with Connor Huff getting the other. That modest run game Middlebury a 40-25 lead with 3:29 expired. The visitors later took their biggest lead of the game at 48-32 as Daley hit from the foul line with 12:11 remaining.

Trinity cut the deficit back to single digits with a 13-4 run that spanned nearly five minutes. Shay Ajayi capped the spurt with a basket from in the paint making it a 52-45 contest with 5:57 left to play.

St. Amour quickly answered for the Panthers with three-straight free throws on the possession following Ajayi's bucket, pushing Middlebury's lead back to 10 points at 55-45. The Bantams made another surge to get back within single digits, as Ed Ogundeka made a free throw with 2:43 left in regulation to make it a 61-55 contest.

Middlebury came up big in the final minutes as the defense allowed only on basket the rest of the game, while going 9-10 from the foul line in the final 1:08 to secure its spot in the title game.

St. Amour had a game-high 20 points and a team-best nine rebounds. The junior has 499 points this season, the third best single-season total behind Mike Baumann (1991) with 500 and John Humphrey (1988) with 621. He also upped his career total to 957 points going into Sunday's game. Daley had a steady game with 18 points and six boards, while Majors had 11 and six rebounds and Brown had 11 points a game-high eight assists.

Ajayi was the lone Bantam to reach double figures with 11 points, while Ogundeko had seven points and nine rebounds.

The Panthers shot 46.7 percent from the floor (21-45) and took advantage of their trips to the line, making 80.6 percent (25-31). Middlebury's defense limited the Bantams to only 32.8 percent from the floor (22-67) and 50 percent from the charity stripe (8-16). The Panthers used those numbers to overcome 22 turnovers, while Trinity turned the ball over only 13 times.