Box Score LEWISTON, Maine -- Bates College secured a 76-61 victory against Connecticut College in NESCAC action hosted by the Bobcats in Lewiston Saturday..
On Saturday in Alumni Gym, the Bobcats scored the final 19 points of the game, holding Connecticut College scoreless over the final 6:28 to change a late deficit into a 76-61 victory.
Bates (14-4, 4-2 NESCAC) is now 9-0 at home and off to its best start through 18 games since the 2006-07 season.
With their seventh consecutive setback, the visiting Camels dropped to 7-11 overall and 0-6 in NESCAC play.
Sophomore Marcus Delpeche (Wilmington, Del.) scored a career- and game-high 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field and grabbed seven rebounds for the Bobcats. Senior Billy Selmon (Atlanta, Ga.) added 15 points, including 11 in the second half, and junior Mike Boornazian (Portland, Conn.) scored 14. Senior Graham Safford (Hampden, Maine) scored 10 points, all in the second half, and dished out 10 assists to go with seven steals -- one away from his own team single-game record of eight. Senior Adam Philpott (Gloucester, Mass.) contributed 10 points and seven rebounds in 14 productive minutes off the bench.
Zuri Pavlin led the Camels with 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Daniel Janel scored 10 points and Alex Tonhazy added nine points and eight boards.
"Our team played with a lot of passion and intensity today but we made too many silly mistakes with the ball and that really hurt us," Connecticut College Head Men's Basketball Coach Tom Satran said.
Connecticut College maintained a small lead, never greater than six points, for most of the contest. The Camels led 57-51 with 8:40 to go and 61-57 with 6:28 left, on a layup by Pavlin set up by McKinley.
Selmon cut the lead to one just six seconds later on a three assisted by Safford. Selmon fouled McKinley on Conn's ensuing possession, but the Camel guard missed the front end of a one and one. The teams traded misses before Safford set up a layup by sophomore Malcolm Delpeche (Wilmington, Del.) for a 62-61 Bates lead with 5:32 to play. Selmon drilled another Safford-assisted three at the 4:28 mark to make it 65-61, Bates' biggest lead to that point. Bates' lead widened with a pair of Safford free throws, followed by a Boornazian three for a 70-61 advantage with 1:41 to go. Safford made four more free throws and Selmon hit two more to account for the final score.
Marcus Delpeche threw down two of his three dunks in the game in the first half, buoying the Bobcats to a 35-34 edge at intermission. He made all five of his shots in the half for 11 points to go with five rebounds, while Philpott had eight points and four boards in five minutes. He made back-to-back layups to turn a 29-27 deficit into a 31-29 lead late in the half, and then he set up a Marcus Delpeche dunk with 40 seconds left in the period. McKinley made a pair of free throws with 8.8 seconds to go in the period to close Bates' lead to 35-34. Despite owning the slight lead, the Bobcats missed all 10 of their 3-point attempts in the half. The Camels committed 12 of their 21 turnovers in the opening period.
