The men’s basketball team dropped a pair of games to the NESCAC’s top two teams over the weekend, falling to Trinity 70-49 on Friday night and losing to Amherst 78-67 on Senior Day. The team now sits at 8-14 overall and 1-6 in NESCAC play, tied for the eighth and final playoff spot with Colby and Tufts.

Trinity ventured down I-91 on Friday night having won its last five games against Wesleyan by an average of 21 points. During the teams’ previous meeting in 2007, Wesleyan never led and trailed by as many as 30 points in the first half. This time, Wesleyan played toe-to-toe with the Bantams for much of the first half. Wesleyan led for 11:30 of the first 16 minutes of the half; with 4:12 remaining, Trinity sank a three-pointer to go up 32-31. Wesleyan went to the locker room trailing 39-34, a stark contrast to the previous year’s 50-22 halftime deficit.

However, the Cardinals were unable to duplicate their prior success in the second half. A layup by Stan Grayson ’09 cut the deficit to 39-36, but Trinity scored 10 of the next 12 points for a 49-38 lead with 14:47 to go. Trinity later used a 16-2 run over five minutes for a 65-44 bulge. Wesleyan did not score for the last 4:03, and the Cardinals’ last field goal came with 5:49 remaining, allowing Trinity to coast to a 21-point win.

Wesleyan made just six of 30 shots in the second half and missed all five three-point attempts in the game, just the Cardinals’ third this season without a trey. Kevin Scura ’09 noted that Wesleyan’s poor shooting, combined with Trinity’s pressure defense, made the difference in the second half.

“[Trinity’s press]…prevented us from getting into our offense until later in the shot clock,” Scura said. “Additionally…we did not make one three-pointer that night, and that allowed [Trinity] to concentrate on defending our forwards in the second half.”

The Cards took on top-ranked Amherst on Saturday afternoon. In the teams’ previous meeting in January, Wesleyan trailed 40-34 at halftime but was outscored 45-29 in the second half. The Cardinals trailed 34-27 late in the first, but Mike Raymond ’08 sank a three at the buzzer to bring Wesleyan within four.

The Lord Jeffs led by as many as 12 in the second, but Wesleyan twice cut the deficit to one. Wesleyan trailed 51-50 and had the ball with 8:58 left, but a missed layup and an offensive foul gave the Lord Jeffs the ball back. A layup by Jeremy Kaminer ’10 brought the Cardinals to within 53-52 with 7:20 remaining, but Amherst scored on its next eight possessions to ice the 11-point win. The Lord Jeffs made more than twice as many free throws in the game (25) than Wesleyan even attempted (12).

Co-captain Eric Winters ’08 fouled out six minutes into the second half, finishing his last home game with no points and one rebound. Scura noted that the reverberations of Winters’s early departure were felt for the rest of the game.

“The hardest thing was playing without [Winters] after he fouled out,” Scura said. “His defense and energy really make us go, and we definitely missed him.”

Scura added, however, that “the bottom line was Amherst just made the plays they had to make to win the game, and we didn’t.”

Wesleyan, Colby, and Tufts are currently tied for the eighth and final playoff spot. However, Tufts plays Colby in the regular-season finale for both teams, so Wesleyan must win at least one of its last two games (at Middlebury and Williams) to have a shot at qualifying for the NESCAC tournament for the first time in three seasons.

The Cardinals face a tall order this season: A win by Middlebury on Friday would give the Panthers a first-round home tournament game, and Williams will likely need to beat Wesleyan in the regular-season finale to clinch a playoff spot. Still, Wesleyan appears to be up to the task. As the Cardinals have shown in rallying from countless double-digit deficits this season, their competitive fire is impossible to extinguish.