Hartford, Conn. – Junior center Mackenzie Griffin (Stamford, Conn.) poured in a game-high 26 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, and made five steals to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 62-54 victory over the visiting Middlebury College Panthers in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) women's basketball action this evening on Ogrodnik Court in Oosting Gymnasium.  Trinity closes the season with two wins in a row, a 9-15 overall record, and a 2-8 mark in the NESCAC, while the Panthers fall to 11-12 overall and 3-6 in the league with just a road game left in their regular season at No. 10-ranked Amherst tomorrow afternoon.

Trinity used a 9-0 run to turn a 10-9 deficit into an 18-10 lead midway through the first half, as Griffin scored seven of the nine Bantam points, and did not trail the rest of the game.  The Bantams took a double-digit lead at 29-18 on a jumper by senior Taylor Higgins (Merrick, N.Y.) inside the final minute of the first half, but Middlebury freshman guard Sarah Kaufman (Boulder, Colo.) sank a pair of free throws with 14 seconds left to send the teams into halftime with the home team ahead, 29-10.  Griffin had nine points and Higgins had eight at the break, and Trinity held a 23-to-14 edge on the boards but committed 10 turnovers.  Sophomore forward Elizabeth Knox (Falmouth, Mass.) paced Middlebury with six first-half points, as the Bantams held the Panthers to nine field goals in 28 attempts (32.1 percent).

Middlebury fought back and pulled to within three points at the 15:17 mark of the second stanza on a layup by senior tri-captain forward Rachel Crews (South Burlington, Vt.), and within a basket at 44-42 at the midpoint on a drive by Kaufman.  A jumper by Higgins and two free throws by Griffin made the score, 48-44, in Trinity's favor with 4:43 on the clock, but Panther buckets by senior tri-captain Alexis Coolidge (Jay, N.Y.) and Knox tied the game at 48-all less than a minute later.  Trinity juniors Melanie Mills (Woodstock, Conn.) and Christina Raiti (Plainview, N.Y.) nailed back-to-back jumpers from the right corner, but a drive by Middlebury sophomore forward Krystina Reynolds (Wallingford, Conn.) pulled the visitors back to within two points at 52-50 with under two minutes remaining.  

Bantam sophomore Sheena Landy (Durham, Conn.) drilled a three-pointer from the top of the key, while Reynolds and Trinity junior guard Alexa Menard (Wallingford, Conn.) traded trips to the free throw line for a 57-52 Trinity lead with 51 seconds on the clock.  Trinity held Middlebury without a point until the closing seconds the rest of the way, and Griffin connected on four more foul shots to finish 10-for-11 from the charity stripe for the game.  Higgins joined Griffin in double figures in scoring for the Bantams with 12 points, while Mills notched six points, nine boards, and a blocked shot off the bench.  Knox led the Panther offense with 19 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, while Kaufman dished a game-high six assists and added five boards.  Trinity finished 15-for-17 from the foul line and outrebounded Middlebury 42-to34.  The teams combined to miss 19 of 22 three-point attempts.