FORT WAYNE, Ind. - It's an all-NESCAC battle in the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four as the Wesleyan men's basketball team prepare for a national semifinal matchup against longtime in-state league Trinity, with the winner advancing to the National Championship game for the first time. The Cardinals (30-1) and Bantams (28-3) each defeated one another once this season, with Wesleyan winning 72-63 in Hartford in the regular season while the Bantams exacted revenge in the NESCAC title game in a 75-67 triumph in Middletown. Fans can watch the game live on ESPN+ (subscription required) with the tip-off scheduled for 5:30 PM from the Allen County War Memorial Colesium.

The 2025 Final Four marks the fourth time two NESCAC men's basketball teams have advanced to the Final Four in the same year (2004, 2011, 2014). It is also the third time two NESCAC teams will play each other in a national semifinal. The previous two all-NESCAC semifinal matchups were in 2004 and 2014, when Amherst and Williams played each other.

On the opposite side of the bracket, NYU and WashU face off in an all-UAA matchup in the other national semifinal contest scheduled for 8:00 PM on Thursday. The two winning teams advance to the National Championship game which is slated for 4:00 PM on Saturday in Fort Wayne.

WESLEYAN NOTES

• Wesleyan is coached by Joe Reilly in his 17^th season with the Cardinals. Reilly spent 11 seasons as the head coach at Bates before returning to his home state of Connecticut to coach the Cardinals. Reilly is a three-time NESCAC Coach/Coaching Staff of the Year recipient (2005-06 with Bates, 2021-22 and 2024-25 with Wesleyan) while he earned his 300^th career win earlier this season.
• Leading the Cardinals on a historic season, Reilly and assistant coaches Matt Bielenda and Noah Tyson guided Wesleyan on a 26-game unbeaten run that lifted the Cardinals from an unranked squad that finished 13-12 last season, all the way up to No. 1 in the national rankings in late January. The program had never been ranked Top 5 in the country while the 26 wins accumulated throughout the regular season and NESCAC Tournament are the most in the 120+ year history of Wesleyan men's basketball.
• Wesleyan was the only undefeated team in the country for nearly six weeks while the Cardinals held on to the national No. 1 ranking up through the final week before the start of the NCAA Tournament.
• This is Wesleyan's fifth NCAA Tournament appearance in team history, all of which have come in the past 10 years under Coach Reilly's tenure. Prior to this season, Wesleyan had never been out of the second round as this run to the Sweet 16, Elite 8, and Final 4 are all program-firsts.
• The Cardinals are one of four NESCAC teams (Trinity, Tufts, and Hamilton) to make the NCAA Tournament field, all of which were ranked Top 16 in the NCAA Power Index (NPI) and three of which were host sits for the opening round of the national postseason tournament.
• Wesleyan made history with their 24-0 regular season, becoming the first NESCAC team to complete an undefeated regular season since the league became a formal playing conference and championships began in the 2000-01 season.
• Wesleyan's 10-0 NESCAC regular season record saw the Cardinals become the first NESCAC team to go 10-0 in conference play since Amherst back in the 2012-13 season.
• The Cardinals swept both Williams and Amherst in the regular season to earn the Little Three Championship for the first time since 2017-18 while this marked just the second time since 1947-48 that the Cardinals swept both Little Three rivals in the regular season.
• This season marks the first 30-win campaign in team history while this is the team's 10^th consecutive winning season dating back to 2014-15, the second-longest streak in the team's 122-year history.
• Wesleyan went 24-0 in the regular season despite playing only nine of their 24 games at home, as the team went 13-0 in true road games and 2-0 at neutral sites.
• As a team, Wesleyan ranks fourth in the nation in both scoring margin (+16.5) and assist/turnover ratio (1.68), while the Cardinals are sixth-best in scoring defense (60.1), 10^th in rebound margin (+10), and 15^th in both fewest turnovers per game (10.0) and field goal percentage defense (38.6).
• The Cardinals had a single-season team record three earn All-NESCAC honors, headlined by two First Team selections in guards Nicky Johnson and Shane Regan while Jackson Cormier was a Second Team pick. This marked the first season in team history where two Cardinals earned First Team honors.
• Nicky Johnson is the program's all-time assist leader (579) while he is a three-time All-NESCAC honoree and two-time First Team selection. He earned All-American honors as a sophomore where he averaged 14.3 points, 6.3 assists, and 6.0 rebounds per game. He is shooting 45.3 percent from the floor and 35.2 percent from three this season while he is in his fourth consecutive season leading the NESCAC in assists.
• Shane Regan earned his second straight First Team All-NESCAC nod, becoming just the third Cardinal to earn multiple First Team selections. The go-to scorer for the team all season ranks second in the NESCAC in scoring (18.1) while he's shooting 50.4 percent from the floor and 86.5 percent from the line, both are second-best among guards in the conference. Regan has scored double figures in 25-of-30 games played this season while he's reached the 20-point mark 15 times.
• Junior wing Jackson Cormier elevated his game this season with a team-leading 50.5 field goal percentage while scoring 8.4 points with a team-best 6.4 rebounds per game. Cormier also leads the team in blocks as he spearheads what has been one of the best defense in the country all season.
• Sophomore forward Ben Lyttle is a threat from three, hitting on 35.8 percent of his 95 attempts on the season while averaging 8.2 points and 5.9 rebounds in 31 games played (30 starts). He has two double-doubles in the NCAA Tournament after having recorded one during the first 27 games of the season.
• Junior forward Fritz Hauser has started 54-of-56 possible games the past two seasons and is averaging 6.3 points per game.
• Some key pieces off the bench include junior point guard Sam Pohlman (6.0 PPG, 79 assists), freshman forward Oscar Edelman (37.5 3FG%), sophomore wing Josh Cameron (4.7 RPG), and freshman guard Zach Wolinski (30 3FG, 32.3 3FG%)
• Wesleyan and Trinity have played 203 times in the series history, with Wesleyan winning 99 and the Bantams claiming 104 wins. The back-and-forth natural of the rivalry is even more evident in recent seasons as Wesleyan has won 11 times and Trinity 10 in 21 meetings since the 2008-09 season.

TRINITY NOTES

• The back-to-back NESCAC Champions are in the Final Four for a second consecutive season as Trinity went 30-2 last season, advancing to the Final Four for the first time. 
• This year's Bantam squad owns a 28-3 record and are in the Final Four after defeating Neumann (76-60) and Keene State (93-78) in the opening rounds of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship Tournament followed by convincing wins over Western New England (79-42) and Redlands (86-63) in the sectional championship weekend.
• Trinity is ranked #4 in the country in the latest D3hoops.com Poll.
• The Bantams are generating 77.4 points per game, shooting 44.5% from the field, including 34.5% from three-point, and 77.7% from the foul line.
• Defensively, the Bantams are one of the top units in the nation, limiting opponents to 56.8 points with a 35.2% mark from the field, both tops in Division III.
• Trinity is outrebounding their opponents by an average of 39.3 to 30.5 per game.
• Junior guard Henry Vetter leads the Bantams offense with a team-high 16.0 points per game, shooting 44.4% from the floor, with 4.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists.
• Junior Jarrel Okorougo, the NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year, is averaging 12.3 points, connecting on 49.5% from the field, and 6.8 rebounds with 28 blocks and 26 steals.
• Junior Drew  is tallying a career-high 11.3 points per game with 5.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists.
• Trinity shot 23-for-64 (35.9 percent) from the floor and 9-of-32 (28.1 percent) from three in their first game against Wesleyan this season (72-63 loss in Hartford) in a game where the Cardinals held Vetter to just five points on 1-of-8 shooting with three turnovers.
• The Bantams flipped the script in the NESCAC title game, shooting 48 percent (24-for-50) overall and 13-for-26 (50 percent) from three with Vetter (16 pts, 4-6 3FG), Lazarre (15 pts, 4-9 3FG), and Will Dorion (9 pts, 3-5 3FG) combining to score 40 points on 11-for-20 shooting from long range. With the score tied at 67-67 with less than a minute left, Lazarre pulled up from well beyond the three-point line and hit his fourth three of the second half for the go-ahead and ultimate game-winning basket in the NESCAC Championship.