Sweet 16 Heartbreak For Bombers; Edged 73-72 At Middlebury
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - The seventh-ranked Middlebury Panthers made two free throws with 1.8 seconds remaining and claimed a 73-72 win over the Ithaca College men's basketball team Saturday afternoon at Middlebury's Pepin Gymnasium in the NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament round of 16. The Bombers had four players score in double figures and finished their season with a 21-9 record. Middlebury improved to 25-3 and advanced to the Elite 8 in Salem, Va.
A hot-shooting Middlebury team made 14 3-pointers in the game and built a 10-point second half lead before the Bombers clawed back into it. There were 15 lead changes in the game including eight in the second half. Four Bombers scored in double figures.
After missing its first two 3-point attempts of the second half on the opening possession, Middlebury made its next seven shots from behind the arc to open a 10-point lead at 57-47 with 11:30 left in the second half. The Bombers stemmed that run with an offensive rebound putback by Andrei Oztemel and a pair of threes from Eli Maravich while holding the Panthers scoreless for more than four minutes.
Middlebury rebuilt a seven-point lead at 62-55 but the Bombers got back-to-back baskets from Travis Warech and Frank Mitchell inside and two free throws from Tom Sweeney to cut the lead to 62-61 with 4:44 remaining.
The teams traded baskets and Eli Maravich made his fifth 3-pointer of the game with 1:56 left to give Ithaca a 68-67 lead.
Two foul shots put Middlebury back in front and they got a defensive stop with 56 seconds left in the half. After giving three fouls, Middlebury's Nolan Thompson missed the first end of the bonus and Middlebury got to the offensive rebound where Ithaca fouled again. James Jensen made both ends of his 1-and-1 to give the Panthers a 71-68 lead with 27 seconds left and Eli Maravich answered with a layup.
Thompson again missed a front end of a one-and-one, and the Bombers went down to get a go-ahead layup from Frank Mitchell with eight seconds remaining. Middlbury point guard Joey Kizel drove down court out of control and was fouled, making both ends of the foul shots for the decisive 73-72 margin. A three-quarter court attempt by the Bombers hit the backboard.
The teams exchanged the lead several times during the first half, and Middlebury held the largest lead at six points on two occasions. Ithaca committed just one turnover and Middlebury had three. The Panthers shot 59.1 percent from the floor and made 5-of-10 from the 3-point arc.
Warech led Ithaca with 19 points, Maravich scored 17, Mitchell added 11 and Rossi scored 10. Mitchell and Warech led Ithaca with nine rebounds each, and Ithaca committed just four turnovers in the game, while Middlebury had six turnovers.
Ithaca point guard Sean Rossi finished with seven assists, to wrap up his Bomber career with 957 assists. He is the all-time leader in Division III men's basketball. This was Ithaca's first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament round of 16.