March Madness Starts Early for Men's Hoops

Author: Matt Ross

The weekend could not have been better for the Middlebury men's basketball team. The Panthers sent Tufts and Bates home crying, 89-83 and 85-72 respectively, in consecutive days, to improve their league record to 4-5. Their overall record of 15-9 is the best the team has had since the '74-75 squad set the school record with 17 wins. The wins also vaulted the team up to sixth in the New England Small Schools Association (NESCAC) rankings, setting up a Feb. 22 meeting with the Tufts Jumbos in Medford for the league tournament quarterfinals.
The Panthers came out strong against Tufts opening up a 12-4 lead at the 15:29 mark behind Nate Anderson's '04 nine points. While the Jumbos bounced back, a 14-4 run gave Middlebury a 19-point lead with 1:22 left in the half. Tufts answered with two baskets to leave the score at 48-33 at the half.
Both teams came out strong at the half, but the Jumbos went on a 10-0 run to pull themselves back in the game with 11:27 remaining. Anderson, who had carried the team early with a game-high 22 points, fouled out with 8:31 remaining and compounded the loss with a frustration-fueled technical foul. Tufts capitalized on the momentum shift and narrowed Middlebury's lead to seven. Captain David Coratti '04 proceeded to take over, assuring that seven was as close as the Jumbos would come until they scored a meaningless basket as time ran out.
Later in the week, Middlebury started slowly against Bates, allowing the Bobcats to jump out to a 20-11 lead just six minutes into the game. The team's early struggles were best seen in Anderson's early shooting troubles. Late this season, as Anderson has gone, so go the Panthers. As Anderson's game high 25 points suggest, Middlebury picked up their play as the game went on. A 14-4 run put the Panthers up 43-33 at the half, a lead that would balloon to 21 points in the second half. A late scoring burst, fed by a series of Middlebury mistakes, reduced the Bobcats deficit. To respond to the change in momentum, Coach Jeff Brown put wildcard Simon Behan '05 in the game. Behan immediately took matters into his own hands, and his energy and 18 points put Bates away.
By moving up to sixth in the league the Panthers conveniently avoided first-round road match-ups with national powers Williams and Amherst. Interestingly, despite an overall record of 11-12, a 5-4 NESCAC record and losses in their final two games, Tufts ended up with the third spot in the league.
Middlebury enters the playoffs on a two-game winning streak against a team on a two-game losing streak that they beat just this weekend. While Tufts is limping into Saturday's match-up, Middlebury is just beginning to sprint. Despite an 0-4 road record in NESCAC play, the Panthers have to be the favorite this weekend. Coach Brown has one job this week: shoring up the problems the team has had on the road while maintaining the momentum the team picked up this weekend. The winner of Saturday's game will play the winner of the Williams-Bates match-up on March 1. Perhaps it's a bit early to consider, but a Bates win brings the Panther's back home with a chance to tie the school's all-time win mark and advance to the NESCAC Championship.