LEWISTON, Maine -- Isaiah Taylor scored a game-high 27 points to lead visiting Clark University past the Bates men's basketball team by a score of 63-60 Saturday afternoon at Alumni Gym. 

Bates (0-1) held a 60-52 lead with 4:15 remaining in regulation when junior Simon McCormick (Whitefield, Maine) drilled a three-pointer. But the visitors finished on an 11-0 run to defeat the Bobcats. 

Taylor got the Clark offense going with a three-pointer, and Mikey O'Brien followed with a layup. Two free throws from Taylor cut the Bates lead to one with 2:09 remaining.

The Cougars (2-0) continued to get to the line, with the final four points of the game all coming from the stripe. Taylor's two free throws with 1:01 left put Clark ahead for good. Meanwhile, the Bobcats struggled to finish at the rim, with the offense going cold down the stretch. 

Senior Steph Baxter (Worcester, Mass.) paced the Bobcats with 22 points on 8-23 shooting. Sophomore Jahmir Primer (Hempstead, N.Y.) chipped in 10 points on 4-14 shooting, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out three assists as well. McCormick had a solid day, finishing with nine points, five rebounds, a team-high four assists, and a game-high five steals. Junior Stephen Ward (Boston) led the Bobcats on the glass with nine rebounds.

The Cougars shot 38.2 percent from the floor, with Taylor making 9 of 19 from the field. Bruce Saintilus added 16 points, eight of which came from the free throw line, and Reid Neumann knocked down 4-5 from three-point range on his way to 12 points.

Bates led by as much as eight in the contest, but Clark refused to go away. The Cougars never led by more than three points but held a 27-25 lead over Bates at halftime thanks to a Kekoa McArdle layup as time expired.

The Bobcats opened up a 46-38 lead with 11:13 remaining in the contest when first-year Elliott Cravitz (Denver, Colo.) hit a three. Taylor responded with a personal 5-0 run, trimming the lead back to three.

Bates responded and went up by six on a Baxter layup with 6:59 left. But once again, Clark had the answer as Neumann drilled one of his four threes. 

McCormick's three matched the largest lead of the game but Bates, but the Bobcats did not score again.

Bates is back in action Wednesday when the Bobcats welcome Saint Joseph's College of Maine to town for a 7pm tip.