Trinity, seeded No. 4 in the tournament, improves to 19-6 with its second straight win and will play at top-seeded Amherst on Sat., Feb. 26 in the semifinal round. No. 5-seeded Wesleyan finishes the season at 13-11. Amherst won its quarterfinal game, 74-68, over Bowdoin, while No. 2-seeded Tufts downed No. 7-seeded Colby, 99-88, and No. 3-seeded Bates defeated No. 6-seeded Williams, 76-73. Bates and Tufts will face off in the other semifinal game next Saturday at Amherst, with the winners playing in the NESCAC Championship Finals on Sun., Feb. 27 at Amherst.
Trinity opened up a 19-5 lead in the first six minutes and maintained a double-digit lead until Wesleyan senior captain guard Tim Holland (East Williston, N.Y.) made a three-pointer to cut the lead to 30-21 with nine minutes before intermission. Trinity went into the locker room with a 49-38 lead, as Rhoten made eight of his 12 shots in the first half and the Bantams shot 54.8 percent from the field (17-31) and 84.6 percent from the foul line (11-13) as a team. Holland paced Wesleyan with 10 points in the first half.
An 11-2 Bantam run to start the second half pushed lead up to 60-40 with just under 15 minutes remaining on a lay-up by senior co-captain guard John Halas (White Plains, N.Y.). Trinity never let its lead fall below 14 points the rest of the way, despite scoring just one field goal in the final 11:14 of the game. The Bantams held Wesleyan to 20.6 percent field goal shooting in the second half and 23 out of 27 free throws in the game (85.2 percent).
Trinity sophomore guard Patrick Hasiuk (Enfield, Conn.) joined Rhoten in double figures in scoring with 14 points and added four rebounds, and four assists, while Halas added 11 points. Senior co-captain Jesse Farrell (Minneapolis, Minn.), who needed 10 assists to tie the College’s all-time record of 210, tallied all seven of his dishes in the first half. Bantam sophomore forward Michael Hoar (Pembroke, Mass.) pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds and had four assists and three blocked shots.
Holland and junior center Robert Kelly (Springfield, Mass.), who missed the majority of the first half with foul trouble, led the Cardinals with 15 points each. Kelly also had 10 a team-high 10 rebounds, while Holland added five boards, and sophomore guard Jared Ashe Stamford, Conn.) contributed 12 points, six rebounds, four assists, and four steals for Wesleyan.
Wesleyan (13-11) 38-26--64
Trinity, Conn. (19-6) 49-29--78