Tyler Nicolai scored 15 points and St. Thomas held Middlebury scoreless for 4 minutes late in the second half and rallied to beat the Panthers 59-57 and advance to the Division III men's basketball national championship.
Tommy Hannon added 11 points and Brady Ervin had 10 for St. Thomas (29-3), which was in the national semifinals for the second time, and won its 11th consecutive game. The Tommies will play Wooster, which cam from behind to beat Williams 73-71 in the first semifinal, on Saturday.
''It's a dream comne true. Every player dreams of making it to the Final Four and winning the national championship,'' Hannon said. ''We're one game away.''
Nolan Thompson led Middlebury (28-2) with 12 points, but missed a 3-point shot at the buzzer that would have given the Panthers their 13th consecutive victory. Ryan Sharry added 11 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks before fouling out, and Jamal Davis scored 10.
St. Thomas, which made its only other trip to the national semifinals in 1994 at Buffalo, N.Y., reached the championship by beating Illinois Wesleyan (four Final Fours), defending national champion Wisconsin-Stevens Point (three) and Augustana (five) previously.
And it used its defense to make it happen against the nation's top field goal defense team.
''We go about our defense a little bit differently than they do,'' said Teddy Archer, noting that the Panthers rely on 6-foot-10 shot blocker Andrew Locke and 6-8 Sharry for help.
''It's our calling card,'' Archer said. ''At the end of the day, we want to be a good defensive team.''
The Panthers, making their first appearance this deep in the tournament, still had a chance to win it, but with the first option of going inside to Sharry closed off, Thompson improvised.
''I had all my weight going away from the basket, which is not ideal,'' he said of the shot that hit the front of the rim. ''We shouldn't have been in that position in the first place.''
Trailing 57-52 and scoreless for nearly 4 minutes, the Panthers ended the drought on Joey Kizel's driving basket with 1:46 left. He was fouled, but missed the free throw - Middlebury's sixth miss in a row from the line.
Anders Halvorsen scored in the lane to boost the Tommies' lead back to 59-54, but Thompson hit a 3-pointer for Middlebury with 56 seconds remaining to make it interesting.
After a timeout, Nicolai threw the ball away, giving Middlebury one last chance.
The Tommies used an 8-1 run to open a 40-32 lead with 16:39 to go, then went cold as the Panthers cranked up their defense, which led the nation in field goal percentage allowed.
Over the next eight minutes, Middlebury outscored the Tommies 18-3, with Kizel scoring six, Sharry and Davis four each while Jake Wolfin and Thompson made 3-pointers.
When Kizel made a pair of free throws with 8:19 left, the Panthers led 50-43. They missed their last six attempts and finished 12 for 23 from there; the Tommies were 13 of 17.
St. Thomas didn't help its cause when Nicolai and Teddy Archer missed the front ends of 1-and-1s as Middlebury built its seven-point lead. But after the teams traded baskets, Archer made a pair, Ervin hit a short jumper and a pair of free throws to make it 52-51.
The Tommies made their last eight attempts from the foul line.
After two missed free throws by Andrew Locke for Middlebury - their fourth and fifth misses from the line in a row - Alex Healy made a pair to put St. Thomas back in front, and Hannon's steal and layup and two more free throws by Archer gave the Tommies a 57-52 lead with 2:13 left.
The Tommies closed the first half on a 15-5 run to lead 32-25 at the break. Nicolai and Healy hit 3-pointers in the run, and Hannon finished it with a three-point play.
