Box Score MIDDLEBURY, Vermont – Middlebury College remained unbeaten with a  57-56 come-from-behind victory over visiting Skidmore, Saturday afternoon at Pepin Gymnasium.

Middlebury is 7-0, while Skidmore drops to 3-4.

Skidmore jumped out by scoring the first five points of the contest as both teams struggled to find their shooting touches. Down 5-0 with 14:54 left in the opening half, Middlebury's Jake Brown knocked down a three-pointer that started an 8-2 run. The lead volleyed back and forth between the two sides as neither team could pull away.

With the score tied at 20-20 with 3:08 left, a tip-in from Skidmore's Marcus Jackson and a layup by Connor Merrill gave the Thoroughbreds a four-point edge. Jumpers from Dean Brierly and Dylan Sinnickson over the final minutes tied the low-scoring stanza at 24-24 headed to the halftime break.

Much like the first half, Skidmore came out of the break and grabbed a five-point lead, 34-29, on a three-pointer from Erik Sanders with 16:56 left. Middlebury responded with an 8-0 spurt over a span of 1:55 fueled by a three from Hunter Merryman and five points from Sinnickson.

The lead traded hands multiple times over the next 10:15 of play with neither side able to pull away. With the Thoroughbreds clinging to a one-point advantage (47-46) with 4:46 left in regulation, the visitors rattled off nine of the next 12 points and grabbed their largest edge of the game, 56-49, with just 40 seconds left on a layup by Perun Kovacevic.

On Middlebury's ensuing possession, the Panthers pushed the ball up the floor and Sinnickson knocked down a three, cutting the deficit to four, 56-52, with 36 ticks left. With Middlebury forced to foul and extend the game, Skidmore missed both free throws. After St. Amour grabbed the rebound on the second miss, the Panthers raced the ball up the floor and Merryman knocked in a 30-foot shot and cut the Skidmore advantage to one (56-55) with 24 seconds left.

Middlebury quickly fouled and sent Skidmore to the line, where the visitors missed both ends of its charity tosses. Sinnickson collected the rebound on the second attempt and worked up the floor as Middlebury was granted a timeout following a loose ball in the paint with seven seconds remaining.

Inbounding the ball from the baseline, Jack Daly sent a pass to Matt St. Amour in the corner. St. Amour dribbled toward the paint, executed an up-and-under move, and put home the winning shot with just 1.5 seconds left for his lone bucket of the game.

Merrill paced the Thoroughbreds with 15 points, while Sanders put together a double-double of 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Aldin Medunjanin finished with six points, eight rebounds and five assists.

Sinnickson led all scorers with 18 points, including 4-8 from beyond the arc, to go along with a team-best nine rebounds. Merryman finished with 17 points.

"Another difficult one to swallow," said Skidmore coach Joe Burke. "The positive is that we continue to show that we can go toe to toe with the best programs in the country. However,  It is up to us to change the final outcome. You give yourself to many chances to lose when you shoot 7-19 from the foul line. You just got to keep working till things start falling your way."

The Thoroughbreds close out the semester at Potsdam on Tuesday in a 5:30 p.m. game.