Courtesy Middlebury Sports Information
Lyndonville — The Middlebury men’s basketball team extended its winning streak to four-straight games, as the Panthers earned an 85-74 road win at Lyndon State on Tuesday. Middlebury pulled away from the Hornets in the final seven minutes with an 18-9 run, including a 6-6 performance from the foul line in the final 1:13. The Panthers (11-7) return to NESCAC play on Saturday, as they travel to Hamilton for a 3:00 p.m. tip-off, while Lyndon State (6-10) hosts Maine-Farmington on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Middlebury opened the scoring less than a minute into the game on a bucket by Adisa Majors, and a dunk by Zach Baines 26 seconds later doubled the margin. Jack Daly and Baines added layups to cap off the 8-0 run, before a three-pointer by Corey Frost put the Hornets on the scoreboard 4:19 into the contest.
Lyndon State fought its way back to take the lead at 26-24, as Robert Rouelle connected from behind the three-point arc with 5:56 left before the break. The Panthers tied the game on each of their next two possessions, while Majors scored from in the paint to put Middlebury back in the lead (31-29).
The Hornets closed to within 37-35 at the half, when Raymond Monroe sank a three-pointer with 12 seconds remaining. Lyndon State kept the score close in the opening 20 minutes, hitting 72.7 percent of its attempts (8-11) from behind the three-point line.
The start of the second half was close as the teams were tied three times in the first 4:08, but Middlebury took the lead for good (48-46) on a pair of free throws by Majors.
The Panthers twice led by 12 after that point, with the first of those on a Matt Daley layup (79-67) with 3:05 left and other in the final minute on two Jake Brown free throws.
Matt St. Amour topped all scorers with 23 points and added six assists, while Baines netted a career-high 20 points on 9-10 shooting from the floor. Daley added 12 points and six rebounds off the bench and Majors chipped in with eight points. Daly had a balanced effort with seven points and a team-high seven rebounds. Brown was steady at both ends of the court with four points, five assists, five steals and six rebounds.
Monroe paced with Hornets with 17 points, while Frost, Kevin Love and Shaun Hill tallied 12 points apiece.
The hosts connected on 53.6 percent (30-56) of their attempts from the floor in the game, including 11-16 shots (68.8 percent) from behind the three-point arc. Middlebury was able to overcome Lyndon State’s shooting by protecting the ball, committing a season-low six turnovers, while forcing the Hornets into 14.