BRUNSWICK, Maine -- Junior captain Meghan Graff scored a game-high 30 points and the Bates women's basketball team defeated No. 4 nationally ranked Bowdoin 74-70 Wednesday night at Morrell Gymnasium. 

The Bobcats (5-1) got off to a fast start and never trailed the Polar Bears (7-1) in the victory, their first over Bowdoin since 2013. 

Bates dominated the first quarter, jumping out to a 21-8 lead through the first 10 minutes of action. The Bobcats held the Polar Bears to just 4-17 shooting to start the game. Graff (South Portland, Maine) and senior Ariana Dalia (Brick, N.J.) both scored six points in the quarter to pace Bates. Dalia, the reigning NESCAC Player of the Week, finished the game with eight points and a game-high 14 rebounds. Her layup with 9:34 left in the first quarter was the first bucket of the game for either team and put Bates ahead for good. 

Graff carried the offense in the second quarter, scoring nine of the team's 15 points. She shot 9-15 from the field for the game and made 11 of her 16 free throws on the night. The Polar Bears chipped away at the Bobcat lead and cut the Bates advantage to 25-23 with 4:19 left in the second quarter on an Annie Boasberg layup.

But senior Mia Roy (Bedford, N.H.) answered with a jumper to put Bates up four, starting a 5-0 run for the Bobcats. 

Up 30-24, Bates scored six unanswered to go up by 12 before a layup from Bowdoin's Sydney Jones cut the Bobcat lead to 36-26 at halftime.

The Polar Bears trimmed the Bates lead to four on a Jess Giorgio layup with 1:37 left in the third quarter. Then the Bobcats ended the quarter with a flourish, getting threes from sophomore Morgan Kennedy (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and Roy in the final minute of action, going back up by 10 at 53-43 through three.

Kennedy was the second-leading scorer on the night for Bates, finishing with 12 points on 4-8 shooting. Roy checked in with nine points on 3-6 shooting.

The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth affair, with the Bobcats keeping the Polar Bears at arm's length. They still held a nine-point lead with less than a minute remaining in regulation. A pair of late layups plus a three at the buzzer for Bowdoin made the final score a four-point margin in favor of Bates.

Jones paced the Polar Bears with 28 points on 12-23 shooting. Sela Kay added 15 points and Callie Godfrey finished in double figures as well with 11. Godfrey also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. 

The Bobcats shot 46.3 % from the field in the contest and held Bowdoin to 35.6 % shooting. The game did not count in the conference standings. Bates plays Bowdoin again on January 29 in a NESCAC contest at Alumni Gym. The Bobcats are back in action this Saturday when they host Clark University (5-3) at 2pm.