Brent Cox had a big night off the bench for Trine. Photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com

By Patrick Coleman
D3sports.com

FORT WAYNE, Indiana — It was the loudest this city has ever been for a Division III men’s basketball Final Four.

Emmanuel Megnanglo pulled down a rebound and was fouled with 1:10 left in the second half, and the crowd of 2,668, most of them clad in the white and dark blue of Trine University, were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief and let loose. The Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, just 40 miles from Trine’s campus in Angola, Indiana, was indeed a thundering house.

The Thunder defeated the Bantams of Trinity (Conn.) 66-54, clinching a spot in the Division III men’s basketball national championship game against Hampden-Sydney on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. Hampden-Sydney defeated Guilford 62-57 in the earlier semifinal.

The result had looked like a foregone conclusion as Trine looked dominant in the first 20 minutes. But the Bantams battled back to cut the Thunder lead to 44-40 as Drew Lazarre battled his way into the paint for a short jumper with 12:49 to play. And a few minutes later, Jared Berry got a push shot to fall to make it 46-43. But Trinity (29-2) had multiple attempts to cut further into the lead and was unable to do so.

Instead, Trine finally pulled out a second-half run. Brent Cox somehow found a way to get the ball in the basket while surrounded by three defenders in the paint. Fred Garland went to the line to make two of three free throws. And Megnanglo, who picked up his fourth foul with six and a half minutes remaining, blocked a shot by Will Dorion in the paint and threw a dunk down on the other end to extend the lead to 52-43. Then Cox, who had been limited in recent weeks by an elbow injury, capped the 8-0 run with a nice post move.

"For what we needed to do, and as great a team as they are, (Menanglo) needed to be on the floor," said Trine coach Brooks Miller. "That's part of our baseline defense. And he's played with that type of foul trouble. And I just think that we believe in him. He believes and understands what we gotta do with his experience. Players win games and ... I wasn't going to watch the video tomorrow morning or tonight and say, man, we should have given a shot and let them in there if they went on a run."

"It's really difficult mentally for someone with two, three, four fouls to be able to concentrate and make sure that they do the job they're doing on defense because you're always trying to do a little too much or not just enough," Menanglo said. "My job is just protect the paint, move around, and help my teammates get a steal or get a stop to go the other way, so no matter the amount of fouls, even if I got four, I know my job is still the same, and I know I got people on the bench and the rest of my teammates will pick me up."

Fred Garland emphatically smacked his brother Cortez’s hand before going to the line with 9.2 seconds left, it was the culmination of seven months of work for the Garland brothers. Trine will get a chance to play for the national title.

Trine had ridden the wave of a big hometown crowd and the varied talents of Aidan Smylie to a 38-26 halftime lead.

The Thunder had back-to-back one-and-done possessions and trailed 11-10 with 11:05 left in the first half. But Sean Okpoebo was called for a foul out on the perimeter and Smylie hit all three free throws to put his team in the lead.

From there, Tristan Davis had a shot blocked and Cortez Garland answered with a mid-range jumper. Cox threw down a dunk in transition and hit the free throw. Cox later hit a nifty turnaround in the paint and the run was 12-1.

"I've been looking forward to this for a long time and you don't get this opportunity many times in your life," said Cox, who grew up just 20 minutes from the arena. "This is the first time in five years that we've even made a trip here, so I knew I just had to be ready. I stayed up last night watching some old clips of me and watching the things I used to do, so just trying to get a feel for it."

Trinity stemmed the run for a moment when Ben Callahan-Gold got a second-chance shot in the lane and Jarel Okorougo drove down the lane for a layup. With the lead 26-18, Trine took a timeout. But from there, Smylie answered with a Eurostep and a hook shot, and then hit a three from the left of the circle to make the lead 31-18. From there, Nate Tucker hit a three and added a layup to help make it 38-26 at the half.

"I thought that stretch he had was absolutely remarkable," Miller said of Smylie. "He was the difference maker in that first half, and that gave us that separation we needed when it was back and forth, and we were giving up some second chance points.

"I think that the country saw him, and this is what he's done for us. Nobody contributes more to it. He took five shots. Five shots. No one contributes more to winning in any sport I've ever played, football, basketball, baseball. Without scoring it or hitting a home run, or making tackles. All the things that you do to win. Aidan does it all.

"His positioning defensively is absolutely remarkable. They tried to throw it in to (Ben Callahan-Gold) in the second half. They wanted to make an adjustment (and post him up). They couldn't because he stayed above him the whole time and took all the angles away."

The Garland brothers led the way with 12 points apiece for Trine, while Smylie finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Okorougo finished wtih 11 for Trinity, as the Bantams were just 19-for-62 from the floor and 2-for-16 from three-point range.

"When these guys (Cortez and Fred Garland) came here, we knew there was going to be sacrifices to be made when it came to shots," said Miller. "And when you do that, you don't get first team All Americans. You don't even get first team All-Region guys. But you win. You're still playing here on Saturday night in this game. And that's why they came here. These guys all were the leading scorer on their team at over 16, 17 points at least at one point in their career. And they came here to win. To be in this game tonight.

"They didn't care about being the first team guys or the most valuable this or that. They're playing. They're playing on Saturday."