Men’s basketball edges out Middlebury and Hamilton

KELSEY BARADZI ’18
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Men’s Basketball team has taken down a series of NESCAC teams over the last couple of weeks to rally after a close loss to the second seeded Amherst. Tufts, Bates, Hamilton and Middlebury fell to the veteran Trinity team, securing the Bantam’s number one place in NESCAC.

The Bantams faced Middlebury College Feb. 13 for a thrilling senior day. matchup. Jaquann Starks ’16 was the top scorer for Trinity with a total of 20 points. Following them was Shay Ajayi ’16 and Ed Ogundeko ’17 both with a respectful 16 points scored. The game kicked of quickly with Trinity acquiring a lead of 2 points coming out of the first quarter. Middlebury’s Adisa Majors kept the Panthers in the game with a impressive spin move to gain a single point lead, but hope was taken away when Trinity went on a 13-3 point run. With possession just moments before the end of the second quarter buzzer went off, Ajayi knocked in a quick basket to bring the Bantams lead up to 10 points coming out of the first half. Trinity was able to own the rebound game in the first half allowing for an impressive lead even with Middlebury having just four turnovers.

Going into the second half the score was 55-39 Trinity. Starks had an impressive second half knocking down 15 points. Throughout the half Trinity was able to maintain a consistent lead of at least eight points at any given time. The Bantams also managed to get to the free throw line 20 times for easy points.

Trinity had a superior field goal percentage of 55.7% compared to Middlebury’s 44.8%. However, Middlebury kept possession, only allowing 7 turnovers compared to the Bantam’s egregious 15.

Ogundeko added a game-high 11 rebounds to go along with his 16 points, and Eric Gendron got 9 points for Trinity. With this victory Trinity clinched the first place in the NESCAC. They had a 17-6 overall record for the regular season and a 9-1 record for the conference. The game ended with a score of 97-86 and the Bantams look to play the Colby Mules for the first game of the NESCAC Tournament this coming weekend.