Trinity wins D3 men’s national championship with wild win over NYU

Trinity celebrates winning its first Division 3 national championship. (Tristen Bronaugh)

For the first time in school history, Trinity has won the Division 3 men’s basketball national championship.

The Bantams secured the title with a heart-pounding, 64-60 victory over NYU on Saturday in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Junior star Henry Vetter hit a go-ahead, decisive 3-pointer with 12 seconds remaining as part of a wild sequence inside the final minute, and Jarrel Okorougo’s two free throws with 0.6 seconds remaining clinched the championship.

Trinity, which was making its first national championship game appearance in program history after Thursday’s national semifinal victory over NESCAC rival Wesleyan, finished the season with a 30-3 record. The Bantams are led by 15th-year head coach James Cosgrove.

Trinity trailed by five, 55-50, with less than four minutes remaining but managed to close its deficit to one with a 3-pointer from Vetter with 1:16 to go. The Bantams called timeout trailing by one with 38 seconds remaining before Vetter missed a shot with 26 seconds left. But after NYU’s Brock Susko grabbed the rebound, he dribbled the ball off his leg out of bounds, giving Trinity back possession with 23 seconds remaining.

Then a crazy sequence unfolded. Will Dorion (Needham, Mass.) air-balled the ensuing 3-pointer, and Trevor McDonald (Natick, Mass.) snagged the offensive rebound before he was blocked on his putback attempt. But Drew Lazarre (West Haven, Conn.) was there to grab the loose ball, and he found a wide-open Vetter, who drilled a deep triple with 12 seconds left.

After an ensuing NYU timeout with 7.6 seconds to go, Hampton Sanders’ 3-point attempt was way off. Okorougo (Stoneham, Mass.) grabbed the rebound before sinking the two free throws.

Okorougo, a graduate of Brimmer & May, scored a team-high 20 points with nine rebounds. Vetter, a Canterbury alum and Trinity’s leading scorer, scored all 14 of his points in the second half.