Lewiston, Maine - The Bates College Bobcat men's basketball team
rode sharp shooting and took advantage of a 15-0 run in the second
half to defeat the visiting Trinity College Bantams, 70-63, this
afternoon at Alumni Gym in New England Small College Athletic
Conference (NESCAC) men's basketball action.
With four straight conference wins, Bates (12-10, 4-4 NESCAC)
has surged into fourth place in the NESCAC standings. Trinity
(10-11, 3-4) has lost three of its last four games.
Bates shot over 50 percent from the field in both halves, finishing
with a field goal percentage of .532, the Bobcats' fifth straight
game over the 50% mark.
Bates junior Alex Gallant led the Bobcats in scoring from off the
bench for the second straight day, scoring a game-high 18 points on
9-of-13 shooting less than 24 hours after he netted a career-high
24 points on 7-11 shooting in Bates' big 76-47 win over Amherst on
Friday night. Junior Nick Schmiemann added 15 points, all scored in
the first half, while Brian Ellis and Marshall Hatch added 12 and
10 points, respectively. Kyle Philbrook dished out a game-high
seven assists for Bates, and rookie guard Mark Brust had a strong
all-around game with nine points, five rebounds and five
assists.
Luke Macdougall led the Bantams with 16 points, followed by 12 for
Mick Distasio and 11 for Ian Fels. Salah Abdo and Chris Applegate
shared the team lead with seven rebounds apiece.
Trinity jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the opening four minutes with a
pair of layups by Macdougall and a three and a layup by Fels. It
would be the Bantams' largest advantage in the game. Brust
sandwiched a Gallant jumper with a pair of hoops to close it to
9-6, and Bates clawed back in to take their first lead on another
of Gallant's myriad midrange jumpers, at 16-15 with 10:17 left in
the half. The lead changed three more times, as Schmiemann carried
the Bates offense for a stretch, hitting three 3-pointers in a span
of five minutes, the second one giving Bates the lead at 31-30 with
3:10 left.
Macdougall responded with a three-point play and Brian Ford
followed with a steal and a layup to give Trinity a 35-31 lead with
2:08 left. Philbrook fed Schimemann for his third three with 1:43
left to finish out the scoring with the Bantams ahead 35-34.
The teams continued to trade the lead early in the second half.
Trinity hit four shots in a row at one point to counter five points
in a row by Hatch. Gallant tied the game for the last time with
9:18 left, hitting a jumper to make it 53-53. Gallant canned
another 15-footer for a 55-53 lead, and sophomore John Squires
sparked the mini-run into a full-fledged 15-0 run, hitting a pair
of foul shots and then double-pumping his way to the hoop for a
three-point play with 7:13 left that made it 60-53. Brust hit a
three from deep in the right corner with 5:08 to go, and Hatch hit
a signature 25-footer from the wing with 3:35 to go to stretch the
lead to 66-53.
Trinity made one last run at Bates, scoring eight unanswered
points, including five by Macdougall and the fourth 3-pointer of
the day by Distasio. Bates answered back with a key layup by Ellis
that pushed it back to a comfortable seven (68-61) with 46 seconds
to go.
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