| The Maccabees held Bates off to advance in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2020. Yeshiva athletics photo |
The day started off with a No. 12 over a No. 7, and later a No. 13, a No. 12 and a No. 11 seed advanced in a thrilling first round of the 2026 Division III men’s basketball NCAA Tournament. Add in a No. 16 seed taking its top seed to overtime, or another one holding a 10-point lead on the national champs in the second half. And add a team winning an NCAA Tournament game for the first time in more than three decades.
Twelfth-seeded Yeshiva got 27 points from senior guard Zevi Samet, 19 of them in the first half, but it came all the way down to the final 0.2 seconds, when the Maccabees were fouled, and Max Zakheim hit both ends of a one-and-one to finally put the game in Yeshiva’s column for good, sealing a 71-69 win. YU led by 13 points in the second half behind triples from Samet and Yair Dovrat. However, the Bobcats’ press soon began to wear away at the margin. Yeshiva’s edge was reduced to five points at 55-50 with 10:46 left, and was finally eliminated completely when a Bates three shunted the Maccabees down at 61-60, as the clock read 5:52 remaining. The lead flipped back and forth twice over the next five minutes, resting briefly in YU’s favor at 69-67 as the clock passed the minute mark, before a Bates layup tied the game at 69-all with just 18 ticks left.
Flooding the fieldThe NESCAC had four at-large bids into the NCAA Tournament, one of four conferences which received more than one at-large to this year’s Field of 64. Here’s how they did. |
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| Conference | W-L | Losses |
| UAA | 4-0 | None |
| NESCAC | 4-1 | Bates (to Yeshiva) |
| WIAC | 2-2 | UWSP (to UMHB) UWP (to Otterbein) |
| Centennial | 0-3 | Gettysburg (to NYU) F&M (to Cortland) Johns Hopkins (to TCNJ) |
What happened next had to be seen to be believed. Dribbling down the court, Samet heaved up a long three with six seconds remaining, with the shot rimming out. Bates snagged the rebound, quickly drove down the court, and put up a buzzer-beating layup, which missed, but seemingly sent the game into overtime. However, as he was going for the rebound, Zakheim was fouled with just 0.2 seconds left, and since Bates had six fouls, the Red Rocket went to the line to shoot one-and-one. He hit both to send the Macs faithful, who made the short trip to Upper Montclair, New Jersey, into a frenzy.
Yeshiva will face the No. 13 seed, Maine-Farmington, which knocked off the homestanding Montclair State Red Hawks 96-84, winning an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since the edged Bridgewater State 64-63 in a first-round game in 2010. Jason Reynolds had a huge game, rolling up 25 points and 21 rebounds to help his Beavers advance. After an Ahmad Robertson tip-in gave the Red Hawks a 63-60 advantage, Brayden St. Pierre drilled another three from the top of the key to knot the game at 63 apiece and spark a 10-0 spurt that put the Beavers up seven. The run was capped off by St. Pierre’s third triple of the game. Robertson and Jacob Morales each hit threes for the Red Hawks as Montclair attempted to cut into the Beaver advantage but could not swing the momentum. After Kory Donlin hit a pair at the free throw line, Robertson hit another three to make it an 83-77 game with 2:20 left to play. Two possessions later, Reynolds drilled a three from the top of the key that would be the dagger, putting the Beavers up nine with 1:23 left in the game. Reynolds hit a stepback jumper in the lane on the next possession and the Beavers were starting to feel it. St. Pierre, Zach McLaughlin, and Reynolds all hit a pair from the charity stripe in the final minute to close out the monumental victory.
Trinity (Conn.), the No. 1 seed in the top left bracket and the No. 1 overall, trailed by 10 points three-quarters of the way through the game against No. 16 seed Keuka before coming to life and putting the Wolves away in a 74-63 win. Down 41-31 with 11:41 to play, Trinity (26-2) responded with a 12-3 run over the next two-plus minutes to trim the gap to 44-43. Henry Vetter poured six straight points to knot the game at 49-49 and the Bantams defense kicked into gear, limiting the Wolves (15-14) to four points over the next four minutes as the lead expanded to 60-53 with 2:30 to play. Vetter and Jared Berry combined to go 8-for-8 from the foul line down the stretch to seal the 74-63 victory. Vetter finished with a season-high 26 points. Lamar Lovelace paced the Wolves with a team-high 25 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Washington & Jefferson ended a 32-year NCAA Tournament drought and handed the Presidents’ Athletic Conference a rare tournament win, as the Presidents defeated Mount Union 82-77 in a game played at Christopher Newport. This marks just the second NCAA Tournament victory for the PAC in 24 years, and the first for W&J since the 1994 season, where the Presidents won three games, including besting Illinois Wesleyan in the Sweet 16. Michael Plasko led the W&J offense with a 17-point performance along with a team-high four steals. Mount Union gained its first advantage of the half with a three pointer, 62-59 and each side traded one-point leads down the stretch until Mount Union drained a triple to hold a 75-73 lead with 1:23 remaining. Carte and Seidl drained crucial three-point attempts to help the Presidents hold a 79-77 lead with 24.9 seconds remaining in regulation. With misses from the Purple Raiders and made free throws from Plotner and Plasko, the Presidents vetoed the Purple Raiders.
Nick Koch buried a step-back three-pointer with 1.1 seconds remaining in the game to lift No. 8 seed TCNJ past No. 9 seed Johns Hopkins 74-73 in a first-round game at Randolph-Macon. The shot sent TCNJ to its first win in the NCAA Tournament since 2020. Koch finished with a team-high 24 points, while David Alexandre chipped in 21 points and Solomon paired 13 points with nine rebounds. Until Koch’s dagger, JHU never trailed in the second half, leading by eight with under five minutes to go and by seven at the under-4 media timeout. The Lions forced a shot-clock violation on the defensive end, and Solomon swished a straight-on 3-pointer to cut the JHU lead to 71-69 just shy of the 2-minute mark. Koch tied it at 71 with another driving bucket, only for Wyatt Eglinton Manner to beat the shot clock with a go-ahead runner with 11.8 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Koch lost his footing but somehow managed to slip his defender and swish a step-back 3 from the left wing with 1.1 ticks to play.
Hudson Johnson put on a shooting display, scoring 27 points on 5-for-12 three-point shooting as No. 11 seed Mary Hardin-Baylor knocked off No. 5 UW-Stevens Point 84-76 in the lower left-hand bracket. The Pointers (19-8) jumped out to a 16-9 lead, with Josiah Butler scoring the first eight points and Max Raimer the second eight. UMHB (21-7) quickly tied the game at 20, however, and never trailed again, leading by as many as 14 points on the way to the win. Donta Coady followed with 15 points and five rebounds with Elijah Lawrence adding 13 points and Zachary Engels tallying 11 boards.
Cortland shot 65 percent from the field, including 68 percent in the first half to build an 11-point lead, and the Red Dragons defeated Franklin & Marshall, 75-66, in an opening round game at Endicott in Beverly, Massachusetts. Cortland earned its first NCAA playoff victory since 2016, and the Red Dragons tied the school single-season record for victories. Kendall Arcuri led Cortland with 20 points and 10 rebounds. he shot 6-of-8 from the floor, including 3-of-4 from the 3-point arc, and was 5-of-6 from the foul line. He also dished out four assists and blocked two shots.
Cortland will face No. 2 seed Endicott, which got a triple-double from preseason All-American Marcus Montagnino in a 96-82 win vs. No. 15-seeded Neumann. Montagnino register 20 points, 13 rebounds, and 13 assists to record his second career triple-double, becoming the only person in the history of the program known to have done it twice. Caden Sullivan scored 23 of his team-high 25 points in the second half to help lift the Gulls (27-1) in front of a packed home crowd.
WestConn rallied from a nine-point deficit with 3:18 to play and got a one-and-one situation at the line with 1.5 seconds left, but the Wolves missed on the front end and the Cardinals held on to win 71-69. Brian Herbert had a game-high 17 points and CJ Ruoff had 11, including a key three with 38 seconds left to keep Catholic (20-7) up 67-61. As a team, the Cardinals shot 11-for-22 from beyond the arc. Tayejon Lynch led WestConn (21-7) with 16 points. Catholic, the No. 7 seed in the top left bracket, will face No. 3 Tufts on Saturday, after Tufts got past No. 14 Penn State-Harrisburg, 65-60. Jordan Spencer pulled the Lions to within one possession with a three-pointer with just over a minute to play. Joshua Bernstein would get fouled on the next possession, making both free throws, while the Jumbos were able to do enough at the line before a Dylan Reilly layup sealed the win late to escape the upset.
Erasing an 11-point halftime deficit in its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002, No. 10 seed Otterbein used an explosive second half to knock off seventh-seeded UW-Platteville, 57-52, in a first-round game at the University of Chicago. Chase Garito threw down a dunk midway through the second half to give the Cardinals the lead for good, and Jarius Jones hit a three to make it a two-possession lead. Platteville got as close as three with under 30 seconds left before Garito hit two free throws to close it out. Reece Huber scored a game-high 15 points in the win. Chicago advanced to the second round as well, defeating Penn State-Behrend 72-48 behind 17 points from Daniel Cochran and 14 from Phillip Lawrence.
Amherst held WPI to just 2-for-23 from three-point range and the Engineers shot less than 30 percent from the floor as the Mammoths got to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019, defeating WPI 63-46. WPI pulled within one, 37-36, on a three-pointer by J.R. Newman with 9:54 remaining, but Amherst answered with one last run to regain control and finish out the victory. Elias Chin paced Amherst (19-7) with a game-high 20 points while K.J. Neville added 16 points. Amherst will face top-seeded Mary Washington in the second round, after the Eagles cruised past Worcester State, 86-55.
John Carroll held Grinnell to a season-low 31.5 percent from the floor, and 14 percent from beyond the arc, in rolling to a 118-86 win at the Shirk Center at Illinois Wesleyan. The Pioneers (22-4) hit just six three-pointers, while JCU went 15-for-31 from beyond the arc. Mike Lamirad had a huge night for the Blue Streaks (23-6) off the bench, as he score 22 points and shot 8-for-11 from the floor in the win. JCU used an 11-0 run early in the game to blow it open and led 58-35 at the break. Illinois Wesleyan got 14 points from Mason Funk and Karlo Colak in a 62-51 win vs. Heidelberg. Noah Cleveland returned for the Titans, coming off the bench to provide seven points and nine rebounds in 20 minutes.
Redlands and Hood set up a second-round battle that is sure to be a fast-paced contest, as the Bulldogs rolled past Susquehanna, 96-71, and Hood defeated Vassar 84-71. Redlands (24-4) jumped out to a 36-12 lead as Austin Unegbu, Chozen Amadi, Jake Hlywiak and Nathan Mattera all hit three-pointers early. Redlands was able to keep its starters well-rested, as none of them played more than 20 minutes. Hlywiak led all scorers wit 22 points. In Hood’s win, Karron Mallory led the Blazers with 25 points, while Jevon Yarbrough had 19 points and 12 boards, and Kullen Robinson added 20.
Roanoke trailed 73-69 with just over five minutes left to play, but hit several big shots mixed with key defensive stops to rally for an 88-84 win vs. Rhodes in a first-round game at Emory. The Maroons (23-6) opened up a 11-2 run to take an 80-75 lead, then Jackson Bell hit a three-pointer, his fifth of the game, to make it 85-79. Bell scored a game-high 28 points. The Maroons will face Emory, which defeated MUW 87-73 behind 23 points from Ben Pearce and 16 from Jair Knight.
Whitworth could not overcome 30 minutes of cold shooting and came up just short in its comeback attempt against Trinity (Texas) on Friday evening on the campus of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. Trailing by 20 points with under ten minutes to play, the Pirates cut the margin to three points and had a shot at a game-tying three pointer in the final 40 seconds before the Tigers hung on to win 71-63. Whitworth pulled within three when Stephen Behil nailed a long three from the top of the circle. The Pirates forced another miss and Behil got the rebound. Kobe Parlin had an open look at a three-pointer with 40 seconds left that would have tied the game, but it rimmed off. Trinity got the rebound and went 5 of 6 at the free throw line in the final seconds to pull away. Making just his second career start, Joshua Chesney scored a game- and career-high 23 points and added seven rebounds to lead the Tigers (22-6).