Hartford, Conn. – First-year forward Donald Jorden Jr. (Tampa, Fla.) totaled 16 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocks off the bench to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 73-60 win over the visiting Wesleyan University Cardinals. It was the Bantams' fourth consecutive game against a ranked team in the last eight days.
Trinity improves to 14-7 overall and 3-4 in the NESCAC, snapping a three-game losing streak with the victory in their final home game of the regular season, while the No. 17-ranked Cardinals falls to 16-5 overall and 5-3 in the league with their first loss in four games. Trinity visits conference foe Connecticut College on Sunday at 2 p.m. and Wesleyan hosts Amherst on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
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Trinity won with its defense, clamping down on the Cardinal shooters in the second half and holding them to a 25 percent field-goal percentage and misses on all 16 of their tries from beyond the arc. Jorden had 12 of his points and eight of his rebounds in the second half, while Bantam senior Eric Gendron (Merrimack, N.H.) scored a game-high 18 points, and junior Jeremy Arthur (Westbury, N.Y.) added 13 points. Rookie Austin Hutcherson (Freehold, N.J.) paved Wesleyan with 15 points, but just four after halftime and was allowed to take just a single three-pointer after the break despite making three of five in the first half.
The game was even for the first 11 minutes before Wesleyan turned a 19-all tie into a 25-19 lead on back-to-back Hutcherson treys. Trinity answered with a 9-0 run, that began with Gendron three-pointer and ended with Gendron jumper, and the home team led, 28-25, at the 5:22 mark. The Bantams extended their advantage to 37-29 in the final minute before intermission on a long ball from the left corner by sophomore Nick Seretta (Greenfield, Mass.), and led, 37-30, at halftime.
Wesleyan cut its deficit to a single possession twice early in the second half, both times on inside buckets by senior tri-captain center J.R. Bascom (Edina, Minn.), but Trinity took its first double-digit lead at 50-39 on long trey by Gendron with a the shot clock winding down at the 11:11 mark, and led by as many as 16 points heading into the final two minutes. Trinity was 4-for-12 from the foul line heading into the two-minute mark and Wesleyan started fouling on every Bantam possession, but Jorden (5-6), Gendron, and sophomore guard Kyle Padmore (Milton, Mass.) made eight of 10 foul shots down the stretch.
Trinity shot well from deep, making nine of 18 attempts including a 3-for-3 effort by Arthur and four of six by Gendron, but finished with a 54.5 percentage from the foul line (12-22). Wesleyan finished 32.8 percent from the floor (20-61), 19.2 percent from long range (5-26), and 68.2 percent from the charity stripe (15-22). Padmore notched seven points, six rebounds, and four assists, while Arthur and sophomore guard Christian Porydzy (South Glastonbury, Conn.) also dished four assists for the Bantams. Cardinal freshman guard Antone Walker (Philadelphia, Pa.) came off the pine to score 14 points, while Bascom finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, and senior tri-captain Nathan Krill (St. Helena, Calif.) grabbed a team-high nine boards.