LEWISTON, Maine -- Josh Britten and Shawn Strickland combined for 32 points on 10-for-16 shooting from three-point territory to lead Bates College to a dramatic 73-69 win over Colby College Friday night in Alumni Gymnasium, ending the visiting Mules' winning streak at 10 games.
Colby (10-2, 0-1 NESCAC) lost for the first time since its season opener against Staten Island. One of the Mules' 10 wins was an overtime victory over Bates in Waterville on Dec. 12.
Bates (8-5, 1-0 NESCAC) won its fourth straight game and will host Bowdoin (7-4, 0-1) Saturday at 3pm. Colby plays at Tufts (10-2, 1-0) Saturday at 2pm.
Britten scored a career-high 18 points on 6-11 shooting from beyond the arc, and he came up with numerous big defensive plays, collecting three blocked shots and two steals. Strickland added 14 points, including 4-5 shooting from three, along with three assists.Â
Britten's three with 4:02 left in regulation gave the lead back to Bates for good, at 68-67. Strickland's high-arcing three from the top of the circle that beat the shot clock with 19 seconds left in regulation made it a two-possession game.Â
Mike Newton had 11 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for Bates, Mike Boornazian pitched in 10 points with five assists and six rebounds, and Quin Leary scored nine points off the bench. Jerome Darling shared the team assists lead with five and Marcus Delpeche grabbed eight rebounds, helping the Bobcats to a 39-33 edge on the glass.
Luke Westman shot 7-for-7 from the field for a team-high 14 points to go with three assists for Colby. Sam Willson added 12 points and Patrick Stewart gathtered a team-high nine rebounds in addition to 10 ponits. Pat Dickert (nine points) and John Gallego (eight points, four rebounds, three assists) gave the Mules a lift off the bench.
Colby emerged from a back-and-forth first half, featuring five ties and eight lead changes, with a 40-37 edge. After a Strickland three tied the game at 35, Willson made a three on a Stewart assist. Leary canned a jumper, but Westman scored the period's final hoop, a swooping layup.Â
Both teams made 50% of their three-point attempts in the period, with Bates making seven and Colby hitting six. Dickert had nine points in the first to pace Colby, while Westman, Willson and Stewart had eight apiece. Strickland scored eight points with three assists to lead Bates.
Strickland led off the second period with his third three to tie the game at 40, but Colby went on a 10-3 run to assume the largest lead of the game for either team, 50-43 with 16:58 to go. Westman capped the run with a steal and his second straight layup, prompting a Bates timeout.
Bates turned to Britten to retie the game at 52, with Boornazian feeding Britten three times for 3-pointers. Leary made back-to-back fast-break layups off of Colby turnovers to stretch Bates' run to 13-2 for a 56-52 lead with 12:40 to go.Â
Bates' Malcolm Delpeche fed a cutting Justin Zukowski inside for a layup and a 56-52 Bates lead, but Colby responded with a 3-pointer by Tony Karalekas and a three-point play by Gallego to return the lead to the Mules at 60-58.
Gallego came up big again for Colby with 7:07 to play, nailing a well-defended 3-pointer on a Westman assist. Westman then fed Chris Hudnut for a fast-break layup for a 67-63 Colby lead with 6:00 left in the game.
Marcus Delpeche spun free from his defender and threw down a thunderous dunk with 4:28 left to close the gap to 67-65, and Britten's final three of the game gave Bates the lead for good at 68-67. Before hitting the three, Britten responded to a foul whistled on him by stealing the ensuing inbound pass.
After a two-minute-plus scoreless stretch for both teams, featuring Britten smothering a layup attempt by Ryan Jann, Bates extended its lead by two, as Newton made a steal and finished a fast-break at the other end, taking a lead pass from Boornazian for a layup.
Willson was fouled by Newton and made both free throws to cut the lead to 70-69. After a Bates timeout, Strickland made it a four-point game with his fourth three. Strickland then stole Colby's inbounds pass out of a timeout with eight seconds left in the game to help secure the win.
Bates shot only .400 from the field (26-65) and .615 at the free throw line (8-13), but .448 from three-point territory (13-29). Colby was .446 from the field, .917 from the line (11-12) and .348 from behind the arc (8-23).
