SALEM, Va. – Steve Fritz says he wasn't worried when his St. Thomas basketball team, having scored only five points in a 10-minute span, fell behind a surging Middlebury 52-45 with less than six minutes left in their NCAA Division III semifinal game Friday night.
Fritz had seen this act before – 14 times before, in fact. That's the number of times the Tommies had rallied in the second half to win a game this season. Could they do it a 15th time?
Yes, they could. And they did.
"There is nothing like looking in your eyes when we're down," Fritz told the Tommies (29-3) in a jubilant locker room after they survived a last-second three-pointer by Middlebury guard Nolan Thompson to escape with a 59-57 win and a matchup with Wooster at 2:30 p.m. today for the national championship. "I knew – I just knew – this wasn't over."
It wasn't over because the Tommies, who struggled on offense after taking a 40-32 lead early in the second half, buckled down with a 12-0 run to jump ahead 57-52.
It wasn't over because the Tommies didn't miss a shot in the last 5:29, making all three of their field-goal attempts and going 8-for-8 from the free-throw line.
And it wasn't over because in that same stretch, the Tommies forced three turnovers and the Panthers missed five straight free-throws before hitting two shots to trim the gap to 59-57 with 56 seconds left in the game.
"Are you guys warriors or what?" Fritz asked his players, who won their 11th straight game. "You just plain didn't want to go home yet, did you? How about that? St. Thomas is in the finals of the national tournament!"
Both Fritz and Middlebury coach Jeff Brown characterized the game as the toughest defensive struggle either had faced this year. The teams played tough man-to-man defense, forced turnovers – St. Thomas had 14 and Middlebury 18 – and made each other work hard for every shot. Middlebury controlled the boards 37-28.
"They made it tough to get into an offensive flow," Fritz said of the No. 2-ranked Panthers. "They had their hands on everything."
"You got a taste of a high-quality, defensive basketball struggle," Brown said, "and a game of runs fluctuating back and forth. Unfortunately for us, St. Thomas had the last run, at the four-minute mark, and that was the difference in the game."
Tyler Nicolai, who led the Tommies with 15 points, found himself hounded all night by Thompson. The Tommies' All-American guard got off only nine shots – and just three in the second half.
"He did a great job the whole game," Nicolai said of Thompson, who finished with 12 points. "He never left me alone. … I just had to continue to be aggressive" in running the offense.
Middlebury leads early
Middlebury jumped ahead 7-2 but St. Thomas knotted the score at 11 and took its first lead on a steal and layup by senior forward Brady Ervin, who scored 10 points off the bench. There were two ties and four more lead changes before the Tommies closed the half on an 11-2 run to go up 32-25 at halftime.
The Panthers scored the first six points after the break to close to 32-31 but the Tommies answered with an 8-1 run on two Tommy Hannon layups, two Anders Halvorsen free throws and a Teddy Archer reverse layup. With a 40-32 lead less than four minutes into the second half, St. Thomas look like it was in control of the game.
Middlebury wasn't done, however. The Panthers hit two three-pointers – their first of the game after going 0-for-9 in the first half – to close to 41-40 and went ahead on two Jamal Davis free throws. A Nicolai jumper gave the Tommies one more lead at 43-42 before Middlebury scored eight straight points to go up 50-43 with 8:19 to go.
After the two teams exchanged baskets, St. Thomas reasserted itself with the 12-0 run. Perhaps the crucial points came from Hannon, the 6-foot-8 junior center. With the Tommies hanging on to a 53-52 lead after two Alex Healy free throws, Hannon picked off an errant Middlebury pass at the top of the St. Thomas key and drove for a layup and a 55-52 lead with 2:29 to go.
"I just took a chance, went to the middle and got the steal," Hannon said.
Archer added two free throws to put the Tommies up 57-52. After a Middlebury layup, Halvorsen hit a jumper off the glass to restore the lead to five points before Thompson's three-pointer made it 59-57. Nicolai got caught in traffic and turned the ball over with 26 seconds to go, setting the stage for Thompson's three-point attempt with two seconds to go.
"I looked at the clock and saw there were five seconds left," he said. "I had to create space, but the shot fell short."
Brown credited Ervin for jamming up the middle on the last shot. The Middlebury coach, who had called a timeout with 16 seconds to go, wanted to get the ball to 6-foot-8 Ryan Sharry, who had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds on top of three blocked shots.
"He cut off Nolan's passing angle to Ryan," Brown said of Ervin, who gave up six inches to the Panther junior.
"Give St. Thomas credit," Brown said. "They were the best defensive team we have played this year in terms of making us uncomfortable."
Thompson scored 12 poinmts and Ryan Sharry had 11 points and 11 rebounds for the Panthers (28-2), who had a 12-game win streak halted.
St. Thomas has won three games over top-10 ranked teams in the last eight days and set a school record with its seventh postseason win in men's basketball.
Next up for the Tommies is the College of Wooster, located in Wooster, Ohio. The Fighting Scots rallied from 17 points down in the second half to nip Williams in the other semifinal game, making for what Fritz said "will be a real good matchup" on Saturday.
The Tommies have a 3-2 record against Wooster in recent years, including an 84-53 win at Wooster in the second game of the 2009-10 season.
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