The Middlebury men's basketball team topped New England College 80-70 on Tuesday evening. The Panthers were fueled by 26 points from Noah Osher and 16 rebounds from David Brennan to earn their second-straight win.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• Middlebury jumped out to an early 6-0 lead with three-pointers coming from Osher and Evan Flaks. 
• The Pilgrims rallied to take an 11-9 edge on a jumper from Kyle Dzarnowski at the 14:01 mark.
• The Panthers answered with a 15-1 run over nearly seven minutes of action, taking a decisive 24-12 lead. Flaks highlighted the span with five points, including one shot from beyond the arc.
• New England College wouldn't go away, slicing the lead down to single-digits (35-27) on a layup from Stravis Lutchman with 56 seconds remaining in the half.
• Middlebury's Osher responded with a layup to push the advantage back to 10 (37-27) heading into the break.
• The teams traded baskets out of the intermission, before a three-pointer and a layup from Osher extended the Panther lead to 52-38 with 14:30 left on the clock.
• The Pilgrims manufactured a quick 7-2 burst over the next minute of action, pulling within nine points (52-43).
• A pair of charity tosses from Lamine Cisse sparked a 6-2 spurt for Middlebury, capped by a jumper from Osher at the 11-minute mark to make it 58-45.
• New England College tried to mount a comeback, scoring eight unanswered points to cut the lead down to just five points (58-53), but that was as close as it would get for the remainder of the game.
• Middlebury countered with its 17-5 decisive run, growing the advantage to as many as 17 points (75-58) en route to the 80-70 victory.

NOTES

• In addition to Osher's 26 points, he also recorded three steals during the win.
• With Brennan's 16 boards, he now has 23 double-digit rebounding games in his career.
• For the second-straight game, Tristan Joseph poured in a career-best 15 points.
• The Panthers and the Pilgrims met for the eighth time in the all-time series, with Middlebury winning each of those contests.

The Panthers are hosting the UAA Challenge this coming weekend, a tournament featuring six teams with three games on Saturday and three on Sunday. Middlebury begins the weekend taking on the University of Rochester at 3:30 p.m. on the first day.