MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Plattsburgh State men's basketball team dropped a 99-60 decision to No. 3 Middlebury College in its regular-season non-conference finale on Tuesday evening at Pepin Gym.
 
While the Cardinals shot a respectable 41.1 percent (23-of-56) from the floor and trailed in the rebounding department by just six boards (39-33), the Panthers hit 16 3-pointers and forced Plattsburgh State into 23 turnovers. Middlebury went 36-of-73 (49.3 percent) from the field in the contest and knocked down 11-of-15 (73.3 percent) free throws.
 
Plattsburgh State slips to 4-5 overall with the loss and next hosts SUNY Geneseo on Friday, Jan. 10, at 7:30 p.m. Middlebury, ranked at No. 3 in the most recent D3hoops.com Men's Top-25 Poll, rises to 13-0 overall with the win and visits Amherst College next on Friday, Jan. 10, at 7 p.m.
 
Middlebury led from wire to wire, with senior forward Matt Folger hitting a 3-pointer on the Panthers' first possession of the game to set the tone. Senior guard Nick DeAngelis (West Milford, N.J./West Milford) buried a jumper to pull the Cardinals within one, but Middlebury broke the game open with 16 straight points. Back-to-back layups by freshman center Cameron Ness (Clintondale, N.Y./Highland) capped off a 7-0 Cardinal run to trim the deficit to 19-9, but the Panthers ballooned their advantage out to 22 points on several occasions down the stretch in the first half, the last of which came when Geneseo transfer and junior forward Tommy Eastman provided the halftime score of 46-24 with a layup with 1:13 left in the stanza.
 
The Cardinals' high-water mark of the second half came when a 3-pointer by freshman guard Axel Rodriguez (Brooklyn, N.Y./New Paltz) and a layup by freshman forward Erik Salo (Delmar, N.Y./Bethlehem Central) pulled Plattsburgh State within 20 points with 12:47 to go in regulation, but Middlebury continued to grow the differential in the late stages of the contest, leading by as many as 41 points with 43 seconds left.
 
Rodriguez scored a career-high-tying 15 points to lead the Plattsburgh State attack, while Salo chipped in 12. Notably, junior guard Matt Bernhard (Voorheesville, N.Y./Voorheesville) scored a career-high seven points in 21 minutes coming off the bench.
 
For Middlebury, junior guard Jack Farrell led all scorers with 25 points, while junior guard Max Bosco added 15 coming off the bench. Eastman posted a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.