HADLEY, Mass. -- Bates women's basketball junior guard Sarah Hughes is the NESCAC Player of the Week for the second time this month, as announced Monday by the New England Small College Athletic Conference.

Hughes (Rumson, N.J.) scored 20 of her season-high 23 points in the final 25 minutes on Saturday to propel the Bobcats to a 67-64 overtime victory over Hamilton in their NESCAC quarterfinal.
 
The junior shot 10-18 from the field, grabbed nine rebounds, dished out four assists, and matched her season-high with three steals.
 
Bates trailed by 20 points at halftime before rallying for the win. The Bobcats trailed by five with under a minute left before Hughes drilled a three to cut the deficit to two. Then she scored five of the Bobcats' nine points in overtime. This is the third time in her career that Hughes has been named the NESCAC Player of the Week. She also picked up the honor on Feb. 9 of this year and in Nov. of 2024.

The Bobcats (22-3) are the No. 2 seed in the NESCAC tournament and they travel to Bowdoin this Saturday to take on No. 3 seed Amherst in the conference semifinals at 4:30 p.m. The winner of that game will play the winner of Bowdoin-Williams on Sunday at noon in Brunswick in the NESCAC championship game.