Middletown, Conn. – Junior guard Keala Mills (Lenox, Mass.) scored a career-high 39 points, sinking 13 out of 18 shots from the field, four out of five three-pointers, and nine out of 10 free throws, to lead the Wesleyan University Cardinals to an 88-76 win over the visiting Trinity College Bantams in the quarterfinal round of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament this afternoon.
Trinity, seeded No. 5 in the eight-team, tournament despite an identical 5-4 record as No. 3 Tufts and the No. 4 Cardinals due to tiebreaking rules, finishes the season with a 15-9 record. Wesleyan, which posts its third triumph over the Bantams this season, improves to 14-9 and will play the winner of top-seeded Amherst and No. 8 seeded Bowdoin next Saturday in the NESCAC Semifinals.
The teams played even for the first 12 minutes of the game, before Wesleyan took a five point lead at 30-25 on a three-point shot by Mills. The Cardinals extended the lead with 4:30 remaining in the first half when Mills hit another trey despite being fouled by Trinity sophomore guard John Halas (White Plains, N.Y.). Mills made the free throw to give Wesleyan its biggest lead thus far at 39-27. A last-second, 10-foot jumper by Bantam freshman forward Tyler Rhoten (Ridgewood, N.J.) allowed Trinity to trail by 11 at 46-35 at intermission.
The Bantams fought back early in the second frame, scoring 15 of the game’s next 22 points to cut the advantage to 53-50 on a lay-in by senior tri-captain forward Ryan Uszenski (Woodbridge, N.J.). Wesleyan withstood the rally, pushing its lead back up to nine points on yet another three-point shot by Mills at 69-60 with 6:15 on the clock. Trinity could no closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Trinity shot just 39.5 percent from the field in the second half (15-38), and made four three-pointers in the game in 20 tries. Rhoten led the way with 30 points, his third 30-plus point effort of the season, making 14 out of 21 field goal attempts. He also pulled down a team-high, 15 rebounds. Trinity sophomore guard Jesse Farrell (Minneapolis, Minn.) added 12 points and five assists, and Uszenski totaled 11 points and three steals.
The Cardinals shots a blistering 55.6 percent from the field (30-54), and drained eight three-pointers in 13 tries and 20 out od 26 free throws. Junior forward Kanem Johnson (New Haven, Conn.) had 18 points and six rebounds, while senior co-captain guard Chris Bray (Montague, Mass.) notched 11 points, and senior co-captain guard Chad Gordon (Los Angeles, Calif.) added 10 points and three steals for Wesleyan.
| Teams | 1st | 2nd | OT | Final |
| Trinity, Conn. (15-9) | 35 | 41 | -- | 76 |
| Wesleyan (14-9) | 46 | 42 | -- | 88 |
SCORING
TC- Tyler Rhoten 14-21 2-3 30, Jesse Farrell 2-9 (1) 7-10 12, Ryan Uszenski 4-11
(1) 2-2 11, Shaun Smyth 3-7 3-4 9, Darren Baker 3-4 (1) 0-0 7, Kevin Reed 0-1
4-5 4, John Halas 1-10 (1) 0-0 3, Corey Days 0-2 0-0 0.
Totals: 27-65 (4) 18-24 76.
W- Keala Mills 13-18 (4) 9-10 39, Kanem Johnson 7-17 4-5 18, Chris Bray 2-4
(2) 5-6 11, Chad Gordon 5-5 0-1 10, Tim Holland 2-6 (2) 2-4 8, David Myrie 1-3
0-0 2, Peter Loussedes 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan Ewers 0-1 0-0 0, Andrew Zelmanowitz 0-0
0-0 0.
Totals: 30-54 (8) 20-26 88.