| Another night, another rally for No. 1 Trinity (Conn.). Photo by Pete Meshanic, d3photography.com |
The top-ranked team in the country survived, Yeshiva continued its run into the Sweet 16, Ben Pearce reached 2,000 career points as Emory survived, Endicott clamped down at the end, Hood made the Sweet 16 for the first time and more in the second round of the 2026 Division III men’s basketball NCAA Tournament.
Next week’s Sweet 16 games will be played at eight campus sites. Four will be played on Friday, four on Saturday. The bracket has been updated with hosting and game times, and our schedule online is updated.
On Friday: No. 12 Yeshiva will play at No. 1 Emory at 1 p.m. EDT; No. 2 Endicott will play at No. 3 Illinois Wesleyan at 7:30 p.m. EDT/6:30 CDT; No. 4 WashU will play at No. 1 St. Thomas (Texas) at 7 p.m. CDT; No. 3 Christopher Newport will play at No. 2 Randolph-Macon at 7 p.m. EDT. On Saturday: No. 5 Hood will play at No. 1 Trinity (Conn.) at 4 p.m. EDT; No. 3 Tufts will play at No. 2 Wesleyan at 4:20 p.m. EDT; No. 4 UW-La Crosse will play at No. 1 Mary Washington at 4:40 p.m. EDT; and No. 3 Gustavus Adolphus will play at No. 2 Chicago at 4 p.m. CDT.
The No. 1 team in the country, regardless of who it is, has had to survive many battles in the past two months, and this weekend was no exception as for the second consecutive night, Trinity found itself down by 10 points midway through the second hal. Babson was up 44-34 after a Timmy O’Toole layup with 10:54 to play in the game. Like last night, however, the Bantams turned the game on its head at that point, as they went on an 18-2 run to turn that deficit into a 52-46 advantage. Jared Berry scored nine of the points in that run. Jarrel Okorougo had back-to-back buckets to make it an eight-point game with 1:56 left and Tristan Davis put the final nail in it with a slam to make it 65-55 with 58 seconds to play. The Bantams (27-2) shot 62 percent from the floor in the second half, despite going 2-for-10 from beyond the arc. Babson’s season ended at 22-7. Henry Vetter led all scorers with 20 points for Trinity.
Jevon Yarbrough put up another huge performance, registering 42 points in playing all 40 minutes of a fast-paced game, helping lift No. 5 seed Hood, the home team, past No. 4 seed Redlands 114-104 in the NCAA Tournament second round. The Blazers advance to the round of 16 for the first time in program history, as they improve to 26-3 overall. Hood will travel to the top seed in the upper left quadrant, and will face No. 1 overall Trinity (Conn.)
Tied 50-50 with 5:13 to play in front of a raucous home crowd, No. 2 seed Endicott clamped down defensively, holding 10th-seeded Cortland to a 2-for-8 showing from the field to win 58-57 and punch their ticket to the Sweet 16. The Gulls (28-1)twice successfully defended final shots from Cortland in the closing second, including blocking a shot with 0.4 seconds left. On the final inbounds, Cam Keliher contested the second potential game-winner just enough to send the MacDonald Gymnasium crowd into pandemonium.
Marcus Montagnino paced all scorers with 26 points (9-for-16 from the floor) alongside nine rebounds. Montagnino started the scoring late in the matchup with free throw makes at 3:57 (52-50), and Matt Boen followed with a hard-earned trip to the line himself, executing in a similar fashion (3:30, 54-50). Cortland answered back, tying the game at 54-all via a layup (3:17) and two free throws (2:09). Montagnino countered with a tough take at the 1:59 mark and swished a pair of free throws with 1:09 remaining on the scoreboard (58-54). The Red Dragons punched back, yet again, this time with a make on a contested three-pointer to bring the game within one point (58-57, 0:45), before the closing sequence secured the win for Endicott.
Emory lived to see another day as the Eagles pulled off a dramatic 83-81 overtime victory against Roanoke. Ethan Fauss sank the game-winning three-pointer with 9.6 seconds left and then came up clutch on the defensive end with the game-clinching block on a three-point attempt from the Maroons’ Jackson Bell as time expired to send the Eagles onto the Round of 16 for the sixth time in the Jason Zimmerman era and the seventh time in school history. Senior Ben Pearce made history once again on Saturday as he led both teams with 29 points on 8-for-19 shooting and was 12-for-15 from the line. With his total, Pearce becomes the only basketball player in Emory history to reach 2,000 career points with 2,002 and counting.
Noah Cleveland had 22 points and Mason Funk added 20 as Illinois Wesleyan advanced to the Sweet 16 for the second consecutive season, defeating John Carroll 73-60. IWU broke wide open a game which had been tied at the half, as the Titans (25-4) opened the second period on a 20-1 run. The stretch included seven consecutive points from Cleveland, who came off the bench for a second consecutive night after missing multiple games due to injury. Although the Blue Streaks attempted several comebacks, they failed to cut the Titan deficit to single digits. In a chippy end to the game, a Karlo Colak and-one and several Illinois Wesleyan free throws sealed the IWU victory, 73-60. Cleveland and Funk combined to shoot 16-for-28 from the floor.
Mary Washington, the top seed in its bracket, surged with a 32-5 run early in the second half to put away Amherst, defeating the Mammoths 81-64. Down by one at the half, Ulysses Young kickstarted a 13-0 run for the Eagles (26-3) with a three pointer, as part of eight points in the run, with sophomore Kye Robinson adding five. After a pair of Mammoth free throws, junior Hasan Hammad hit a three pointer, and Robinson added another basket to swell the lead to 13, at 54-41 with 13:10 left in the game. Baskets from Hammad, junior Jay Randall, Bates, and Young put the Eagles up, 21, at 65-44, with 8:45 on the scoreboard. The Mammoths (19-8), who shot well in the first half, particularly from three point range, struggled from the floor, going 3-22 from the field during one span.
Sam Grieger had another in a string of incomparable nights for UW-La Crosse, as the junior guard poured in 36 points to help lead his Eagles past Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 79-62 and set up an Eagles-on-Eagles convocation in the Sweet 16 next Saturday afternoon. CMS led 17-9 early in the first half and 21-15 before UWL (24-6) went on a 10-0 run and took a 25-21 lead. The Eagles took a 36-32 lead into the locker room at halftime after Reid Jones hit a three for the Stags (23-5) in the closing seconds of the half. CMS cut the lead to 43-40 early in the second half, but UW-La Crosse scored the next 15 points to break the game open. Grieger shot 13-for-22 and 9-for-11 from the foul line in the win, while Devon Fielding came off the bench for a team-high 11 rebounds to go with his nine points.
Yeshiva qualified for the Sweet 16 for the second time in program history as the No. 12 seeded Maccabees rolled past No. 13 Maine-Farmington 92-69. The Macs’ only previous Sweet 16 bid came in 2020, a year in which the NCAA Tournament ended because of COVID before the Round of 16 was played. Yoav Oselka led the way with 27 points, Zevi Samet tallied 16, Yair Dovrat splashed in 13, and Nate Jacobs put up a new personal best of 10. Yeshiva (22-8) was able to extend its 13-point lead to 21 in the first five minutes of the second half, and the Macs never led by fewer than 17 points the rest of the way.
Christopher Newport led wire-to-wire as the Captains advanced to the round of 16 for the sixth time in the past seven NCAA Tournaments, defeating Washington & Jefferson 90-61. Toa Hollenbeck led the Captains with an 18-point scoring effort, while Collin Hines registered a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Ethan Ward also reached double figures in scoring with 13 points, as the Captains held W&J to 36 percent shooting for the night. The double-double for Hines was his fifth of the season, and his 17-point performance matched a season-high for the lone senior on the Captains roster. Hollenbeck’s 18-point performance gives him 1,261 career points in 87 career games as a Captain.
Joshua Bernstein posted a double-double of 24 points and 10 rebounds, while junior guard Jon Medley helped spur a dominant second-half defensive performance as third-seeded Tufts University defeated No. 7 seed Catholic University 74-60. Dylan Reilly put the Jumbos (22-5) ahead for the first time since early in the game with a triple to make it 37-35 with 16:38 to go. The Cardinals (20-7) pushed back and regained the lead, as two free throws by Brian Herbert made it 43-40 with just over 13 minutes remaining. Sidney Wooten connected on a three-pointer on the next Tufts possession, starting an 8-0 run for the hosts that finished with a tip-in make by sophomore Robbie Nyamwaya to put the Jumbos up five at 48-43. The Cardinals pulled to within one at 48-47, but the Jumbos went on a 12-1 run over the next three minutes capped by a dunk from Bernstein to make it 59-48. Catholic twice got its deficit into single digits, but the Jumbos were able to put the game away at the line as Medley hit all six of his free throws late to help clinch the win.