LEWISTON, Maine -- Junior Omar Sarr recorded a double-double and matched his career-high with 19 rebounds but the Colby College Mules scored 50 points in the second half to come from behind and defeat the Bates men's basketball team 78-72 Friday night at Alumni Gymnasium.  

Bates (3-3) led by as many as 14 points and had an 11-point lead at halftime before the Mules (5-2) rallied to win the non-conference game behind a game-high 28 points from Matt Hanna. Hanna knocked down five second half three-pointers to spark the Colby comeback.

Junior captain Stephon Baxter (Worcester, Mass.) made a layup with 1:57 left in regulation, breaking a 69-69 tie. Baxter finished the game with a team-high 23 points on 10-28 shooting. But Hanna answered with a three on the other end to give Colby the lead for good with 1:36 remaining. The Mules made their free throws down the stretch and won by six points. 

Sarr (Dakar, Senegal) pulled down 10 of his 19 rebounds in the first half as Bates rallied from an early 16-10 deficit to take a 22-16 lead on a Baxter layup with 7:51 remaining. A Sarr layup with 3:41 left extended the Bates advantage to 32-20. A Baxter three with 16 seconds left in the half put Bates up by 14. Hanna answered on the other end, making the score 39-28 in favor of the Bobcats at the half. 

The Mules struggled from long range in the first half, only making three of their 20 attempts from deep. That changed in the second half, with Colby shooting a red hot 46.7 percent from three-point range, making seven of 15 attempts. Bates was unable to hit three-pointers all night, finishing 3-17 from outside the arc. 

The Mules slowly chipped away at their halftime deficit but Bates held onto the lead for most of the second half. Sophomore Simon McCormick (Whitefield, Maine) connected on a three with 8:36 remaining in regulation to put Bates up by seven at 61-54. 

An 8-0 Colby run culminated with a Will King layup with 6:52 left, giving the Mules a 62-61 lead. For the next six minutes, the teams essentially traded buckets, with neither team going up by more than three points until Colby's Noah Tyson stole a Bates inbounds pass and converted the layup for a five-point lead with 14 seconds remaining. 

Four Mules finished in double figures, with King scoring 14 points on 6-11 shooting and dishing out a game-high six assists. Tyson tallied 12 points on 4-6 shooting, dishing out five assists, recording three steals and blocking two shots. Jack Lawson added 10 points for Colby.

Sarr's double-double featured 13 points on 6-9 shooting to go along with his 19 rebounds. First-year Jahmir Primer (Hempstead, N.Y.) added 10 points and junior Jacob Iwowo (London, England) tallied six points, seven rebounds, a team-high five assists and three blocked shots.

The Bobcats return to action on Saturday, December 11 when they host Bowdoin in a non-conference game at 3pm.