LEWISTON, Maine -- Senior captain Elsa Daulerio scored a game-high 16 points, classmate Sophie Spolter added 15, and the No. 14 nationally ranked Bates women's basketball team never trailed in a 57-52 win over Colby Sunday afternoon at Alumni Gym.

The Bobcats (14-2, 3-1 NESCAC) swept the Mules (10-5, 2-1 NESCAC) in the regular season for the first time in three years. 

With the score tied at two, senior captain Ava James (Bethesda, Md.) drained a three-pointer with 8:20 left in the first quarter to put Bates ahead for good. The Bobcats led by as many as six in the first quarter, going up 16-10 on a Spolter (Blacklick, Ohio) jumper with 1:48 remaining. Colby's Talia Thompson made a layup with 41 seconds left to trim the Bates advantage to 16-12 at the end of one.

Neither team did much on offense in the second quarter, with Colby chipping away at the Bates lead. A Caroline Hartley layup with three seconds left made the score 23-22 at the intermission in favor of the Bobcats.

Holding on to the one-point lead, the Bobcats finally put some distance between themselves and the Mules in the third quarter. Sophomore Gabby Bellacqua (West Newbury, Mass.) led the way, scoring all eight of her points to pace the Bobcats. 

With the score 30-27 in favor of Bates, Bellacqua hit a three-pointer with 3:49 left in the third to double the lead. The teams traded free throws before Amelia Hanscom got Colby to within four at 35-31 on a layup with two minutes to go. Fifteen seconds later, Bellacqua answered with another three-pointer and Bates took their largest lead of the game to that point at 38-31. A Bellacqua layup with 1:05 on the clock extended the advantage to nine points. 

Entering the fourth quarter up 42-33, the Bobcats hung on from there. Daulerio (Harpswell, Maine) made a jumper with 5:14 to go in regulation, giving Bates a 51-38 lead. 

But the Bobcats did not make a field goal the rest of the way. Colby went on an 8-0 run, capped off by a Hartley layup with 1:11 remaining, and the Bobcats led by just five points.

A pair of Spolter free throws ended the run with 37 seconds left and she made four more free throws after that to ice the game for Bates.

Spoter and Daulerio were only a combined 10-27 from the floor but they combined to make 11-14 from the stripe. James also finished in double figures scoring, tallying 10 points on 3-6 shooting. Bellacqua finished 3-5 from the field. 

Kate Olenik led Colby with 15 points on 6-15 shooting, grabbing a game-high seven rebounds along the way. Hanscom added 14 points on 7-10 shooting. 

Bates won the game despite shooting just 32.8 percent from the field. Colby finished the game shooting 37.7 percent from the floor but 0-8 from three-point range. The Bobcats hit 5-15 from long distance. Incredibly, the Mules went a combined 0-23 from three-point range in two games this season against Bates.

The Bobcats are back in action this Wednesday when they host the University of Maine at Farmington at 7 p.m.