NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Connecticut College men's basketball team closed out the regular season with a 56-46 victory over Bates College on Friday night in a NESCAC showdown at Luce Field House.

Elias Espinosa (Leonia, N.J.) scored 10 of his team-high 15 points in the second half as Conn secured a spot in the upcoming NESCAC Championship. Andrew Hartel (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) added 12 points and six rebounds, and Cam Schainfeld (Newton, Mass.) finished with nine points en route to becoming the newest member of Conn's 1,000-point club.

Brady Coyne paced Bates (10-13 overall, 1-8 NESCAC) with a game-high 19 points and tacked on 11 rebounds.

On a night when the Camels honored their four seniors prior to tip-off, the group of Schainfeld, Hartel, Cameron Lewis (Chicago, Ill.) and Alex Mitchell (Roxbury, Mass.) got the starting nod in the final home game of their careers. Lewis made the most of it early, picking up a steal on the defensive end and draining his first three of the season on the ensuing offensive possession.

Schainfeld took center stage on Conn's next trip down the floor. Needing just one point to become the 20th player in program history to reach the milestone, he fought his way into the paint, got his defender in the air, and banked in a jumper to eclipse the mark in his 89th career game.

After Hartel added a bucket to make it a 7-0 start for the Camels, Bates quickly called a timeout to regroup. The Bobcats finally got going as Coyne provided the spark, going 5-for-6 from three-point range in the stanza and accounting for 17 of his team's 23 points.

A layup by Espinosa in the closing seconds of the half gave the Camels a 25-23 advantage at intermission. Hartel paced Conn with nine points in the half on 4-for-5 shooting.

The Camels opened the second half with an 11-4 spurt to build a lead. A tip-in by Dylan Watson (Mt. Kisco, N.Y.) pushed the margin to double digits with 9:23 to go, and moments later Conn took its largest lead at 46-33 on a three by RJ Casey (Nashville, Tenn.). The Bobcats eventually cut the deficit to seven with 2:05 left, but Espinosa iced the game with his third trey of the night. 

Watson and Casey chipped in seven points apiece, and the former also grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds to go with four steals. Espinosa added three boards, three assists and two blocks to his stat line, and Schainfeld handed out a game-high five assists to move into fourth place all-time on Conn's career assists list (284). 

Conn (13-11 overall, 5-5 NESCAC) will make its fourth-straight appearance in the NESCAC Championship, which tips off with quarterfinal play on Saturday, February 22. The complete bracket will be released by the NESCAC following the completion of all regular season games on Saturday.