Box Score
CLINTON, N.Y. -- Knowing before the game began that they would miss the NESCAC Women's Basketball Championship tournament this year, the Bates women's basketball team showed mettle in winning their first-ever NESCAC matchup with Hamilton, with a 53-45 score at Scott Field House on Sunday.
Bates (10-13, 3-7 NESCAC) finished the conference schedule tied with Trinity for eighth place in the NESCAC; Trinity earned the eighth and final seed in the conference tournament by virtue of its win over Bates last weekend.
First-year Molly Brown (South Dartmouth, Mass.) led the Bobcats with 15 points. Senior Lauren Dobish (Chambersburg, Pa.) scored all nine of her points in the second half, and added a game-high five assists while grabbing four rebounds. First-year Allaina Murphy (Poland Spring, Maine) scored eight of her nine points in the second half and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
Eliza Howe scored 14 points for the Continentals (8-15, 1-9 NESCAC) with six rebounds, while Kim Goidell added 12 points and seven boards.
Hamilton's early 7-2 lead was the largest for either team in the first half. The teams battled through six ties and seven lead changes in the first 20 minutes. Adriana Pulford's layup with 39 seconds left gave the Continentals a 24-22 lead at the break. Brown had 10 of Bates' 22 points in the half.
Bates trailed 27-22 with 19:29 left in the second half before Dobish nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to kickstart a decisive 19-2 Bates run. Murphy made a layup and senior Annie Burns (Topsfield, Mass.) made a three to continue the run, followed by a pair of jumpers by Brown and another pair of buckets in the paint by Murphy, which made it 41-29 Bates with 12:22 to go.
Hamilton fought back with 10 unanswered points to close the gap to 41-39. But after a Bates timeout, Dobish stepped up again with another three, followed by a pair of free throws by senior Kelsey Flaherty (South Portland, Maine) for a seven-point cushion (46-39) with 7:36 to play. Hamilton got a layup from Howe to cut it to 46-41, but that was as close as the Continentals got. They committed three turnovers and missed four straight field goal attempts until a harmless layup by Goidell with six seconds left made the final score 53-45.
Both teams shot an identical 18-for-52 (.346) from the field.
Bates leads the all-time series 6-1; this was the first meeting between the programs since 1999-2000.
Bates finishes the season with a trip to UMaine-Presque for a non-conference game on Wednesday at 5:30pm.
Stats and Play by Play
