Lewiston, Maine - The visiting Trinity College Bantam women's
basketball team staved off every second-half rally by the Bates
College Bobcats and came away with a 76-71 victory in the
quarterfinals of the New England Small College Athletic Conference
(NESCAC) Women's Basketball Championship this afternoon at Alumni
Gymnasium.
The Bantams, seeded fifth in the tournament, raise their record
to 17-7 and advance to the tournament semifinals for the first time
since it began in 2001, while fourth-seeded Bates finishes 16-9 and
misses the semifinals for the first time.
First-year guard Michelle Royals (Torrington,
Conn.) led four Bantams in double figures with 23 points
from off the bench. Junior Christine Card (Waterbury,
Conn.) contributed a double-double with 14 points and 13
rebounds. Sophomore Kristen Fahey (Cumberland, R.I.) and junior
Claire Arnstein (Hicksville, N.Y.) added 13 and 11
points, respectively.
Senior Val Beckwith (Woburn, Mass.) led the
Bobcats with 17 points to go with 8 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.
Beckwith finishes her career with 1,471 points, seven shy of Bates'
all-time leading scorer, Emily King '00. Junior Lauren
Yanofsky (Belmont, Mass.) added 14 points, 8 boards and 3
blocks. First-year Annie Burns (Topsfield, Mass.)
scored 11 points to go with a team-high 9 rebounds, and sophomore
Jessie Igoe (Lexington, Mass.) added 11 points and
6 boards.
The teams came out of halftime with Trinity on top 42-36, and
the Bantams extended the lead to 44-36 on a jumper by Card. But
Bates scored seven straight points, four by Yanofsky, to cut the
lead to 44-43 with 16:53 to play. Trinity answered with a 9-2
run, capped by a three from Royals and a steal by junior
Jessica Sims (Peabody, Mass.) leading to a jumper
by Fahey, prompting a Bates timeout with 13:12 left and Trinity
ahead 53-45.
Bates came out of the timeout with a big possession, with three
misses all collected by the Bobcats, and eventually Burns canned a
three to cut it to 53-48. The shot started an 11-3 Bates run that
was capped by another three by Yanofsky which tied the game for the
first time since midway through the first half, at 56-56 with 8:55
to play.
Sophomore Molly McGlynn (Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.)
hit a foul shot to put Trinity back in the lead, but Burns found
Yanofsky for a layup to put the Bobcats in the lead at 58-57. The
lead was short-lived, however, as Royals split the Bates defense
for a layup and an and-one foul shot. Burns answered by
banking in a short jumper to tie the game at 60-60 with 7:17 to
play, then she found Yanofsky for another three to put Bates on
top, 63-60, with 6:17 to play. But Trinity responded with three
straight hoops in a span of 66 seconds, a pair of layups by Royals
and a jumper by sophomore Rebecca Cohn (San Francisco,
Calif.) that made it 66-63 Trinity with 5:11 left.
Bates got to the foul line on two straight possessions, and
Beckwith and first-year Kristen Finn (Winthrop,
Mass.) each hit both foul shots to give the Bobcats their
last lead of the game, 67-66, with 4:22 left. Card fouled her own
miss with a putback to put Trinity on top for good at 68-67, and
another layup by Royals, assisted by Fahey, made it 70-67 with 2:14
left. Beckwith and Igoe both hit foul shots in consecutive
trips to the line, and Arnstein pushed the Trinity lead to 73-69 by
hitting both of hers. After Beckwith stole the ball after a Bates
turnover and hit a jumper to make it 73-71 with 1:01 to play, both
teams missed the next time down the floor, and Fahey hit two more
foul shots and Royals added another in the final 13 seconds to ice
the win for the Bantams.
Trinity emerged from a back-and-forth first 10 minutes of the
game to pull away for a first-half lead of as many as 10 points. A
jumper by Arnstein and a three by junior Tess Donie
(Worcester, Mass.) started an 11-2 Trinity run that put
the Bantams on top 35-26 with 5:45 left in the period, and a three
by Royals with 3:18 to go made it 38-28. Bates closed out the half
with a jumper by Burns to make it 42-36 at the break. Card had 10
points and 8 rebounds in the period to lead the Bantams, while
Beckwith had 10 points and junior Kellie Goodridge
(Merrimack, N.H.) added eight for Bates.
box score
