The 24th-ranked Middlebury men's basketball team battled host Wittenberg in Saturday's back-and-forth contest before falling 76-73 in the finale of the Great Lakes Invitational. Neither side possessed a double-digit lead in the contest before the Tigers put together a late run, holding on for the victory.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• The first 8:30 of the opening half had five ties and saw the teams trade small leads. 
• Knotted at 15-15, the Panthers ran off a quick 4-0 spurt on layups from Tristan Joseph and Sam Stevens for a 19-15 advantage with 10:29 left in the stanza.
• The Tigers answered with eight of the next 12 points over the ensuing 4:35, tying the contest again at 23-23 on a basket from Trey Killens.
• Middlebury quickly surged ahead by five with a three-point field goal from Noah Osher and a bucket by Charley Moore.
• Wittenberg slowly cut into the lead, taking a 33-32 edge on a pair of free throws by Grayson Steury with 50 seconds left.
• The Panthers took a narrow one-point edge (34-33) heading into the halftime break when Stevens tallied a bucket on the final possession.
• Out of the locker room, Middlebury raced out to its largest advantage of the contest (53-46) on two charity tosses by Stevens with 12:58 left.
• The Tigers manufactured a 12-2 run over the next 5:32 of action, taking a 58-55 edge on a three from Jeff Queen.
• The Panthers responded with a 9-4 spurt, regaining the advantage at 64-62 with 4:41 remaining on a layup by Stevens.
• The two sides traded small leads over the next few minutes before a free throw from David Brennan with 2:42 showing on the clock made it a 67-67 contest.
• Wittenberg tallied the next five points, taking a 72-67 advantage on a charity toss from Killens with 1:07 left.
• The Panthers continued to look to even the contest, but Killens scored a layup and converted a pair of free throws for the final 76-73 tally.

NOTES

• Stevens finished with his first double-double of the season and fifth of his career. He scored a team-high 21 points and had a game-best 10 rebounds.
• The programs met for the first time in men's basketball. 
• Wittenberg is the winningest program in the history of Division III men's basketball with 1,841 victories.

Middlebury has more than a week off from action before it hosts Endicott on November 26 at 1:00 p.m.