The Bobcats where able to overcome a one-point half-time deficit (42-43) to win by two (77-75) over the number one ranked team in New England at Southern Maine's Warren G. Hill Gymnasium Jan. 22.
During the first half alone there were twelve ties and ten lead changes. In the second half it appeared to be more of the same when USM was able to mount a 10-4 run around 9:43, but Bates answered with a run of their own as they outscored the Huskies 5-0 on two quick buckets and a foul shot from first-year forward Jolene Thurston (Post Mills, Vt.) all within a minute at 4:07. Senior center and captain Sarah Bonkovsky (Harvard, Mass.) kicked the ball out to sophomore guard Amy Taylor (Orono, Maine) who hit a crucial three at 2:02. Bates trailed by six with just 1:37 to go when head coach Jim Murphy applied a full court press that allowed the Bobcats to go on a 6-0 run with two buckets from Thurston and a short jumper from Taylor. With the game tied the stage was set for sophomore Colleen McCrave (Walpole, Mass.),who had seven steals on the day, to hit a lay-up driving to the hoop and get fouled with just eight seconds left in regulation. She missed the foul shot which worked to the Bobcats' advantage. USM was unable to get the ball the full length of the floor to get a good look at the basket and got off only a half court shot that clanged off the side of the backboard.
The Bobcats once again won on a well balanced scoring attack. All five starters scored in double digits. One of the keys to their success was that their press was very effective as it has been all year. forcing 24 USM turnovers. . Taylor lead the way for the Bobcats as she had a near perfect night offensively. She shot 7-8 from the field, 1-1 from three-point land, and 5-5 from the line to finish with 20 points and four steals.. McCrave, who is currently averaging 6.1 steals per game, added 16 points, while Thurston, Bonkovsky, and Emily King (Lebanon, N.H.) all added 14, 13, and 12 points respectively.
Staake Gymnasium was the site of the Bobcats next game on January 25th. The Babson Beavers were coming into the game with a 8-4 mark and ranked 10th in New England. After upsetting the number one team in New England the Bobcats had momentum that they hoped to use to carry them to victory. Bates wasted no time jumping out to a 41-21 half-time lead. It was smooth sailing for the Bobcats in the second half as they cruised to a 72-59 victory. The Bobcats shot just 38 percent from the field and 58 percent from the line, but were able to capitalize on 25 Babson turnovers.
Four Bates players scored in double digits, as Bonkovsky lead the way with 15 points. Taylor, first-year guard Melissa Lapointe (Salem, N.H.), and McCrave chipped in with 13, 12, and 12 points respectively. King added 11 rebounds for the Bobcats.
The Bobcats are ranked fifth in the latest New England Women's Basketball Association Poll, their highest ranking ever. They have won a school record eight straight games. For her efforts, McCrave was named NESCAC Co-Player of the Week and Maine Player of the Week
1/30 at Colby
The 22nd of January found the Bobcats at Warren G. Hill Gymnasium as they
took on the USM Huskies. The Bobcats came ready to play and at half-time
found themselves enjoying a 35-20 half-time lead. The Huskies where not
about to lay down to the Bobcats, though. They came out aggressively and
closed the gap slowly until about the 8:20 mark when the Huskies began
a 20-11 run that stretched into the final minute as Wayne Levesque tied
the game for the Huskies with a foul shot with just :43 seconds left in
regulation. Bates Sophomore Andy Hall (Sandwich, Mass.) was fouled on the
rebound with :40 seconds remaining. He hit the first end of the 1-and-1,
but missed the second. Luckily for Bates, senior forward Mike Marsh
(Manchester,
Conn.) still had some life left in his legs and he grabbed the offensive
rebound. Bates was able to hold on to the one point margin as they took
a 61-60 victory back to Lewiston.
Matt Garvey (Amherst, Mass.) and Marsh led the way for the Bobcats offensively as they each netted 19 points apiece. Hall added 11 points and six rebounds in 24 minutes of action.
In the Bobcat's second of three games in four days the Bobcats found themselves at Western New England taking on the 4-7 Golden Bears. The game pitted two evenly matched ball clubs. The scoring was traded back and forth throughout the game as each club had four men in double digits. The only difference may have been the home court advantage which Western New England used to cling to a 36-33 half-time lead. Bates came out strong, starting the second half on a 20-2 run, but their 17-point advantage quickly dwindled. In the second half the Golden Bears took advantage of their free-throw opportunities, going 16-for-17 at the line as they finished the game shooting 91.3 percent from the line. Matt Garvey once again lead the way for the Bobcats with 20 points and nine assists. Senior center Jesse Strandberg (Steep Falls, Maine) used his 6-8 frame to rip down 13 boards while scoring 15 points. Marsh added 14 points in 36 minutes, while first year guard Ryan Emerson (Milford, N.H.) chipped in with 12 points and 4 steals.
The following day the Bobcats rolled into Williamstown, Mass. to take on one of the best teams in New England, the 10-2 Williams Ephs. The Ephs where coming off a big win against the then ranked number one team in New England, the Colby College White Mules. With all the momentum seeming to be going Williams' way, Bates would have to fight an uphill battle. The Bobcats just weren't able to get it going against a very tough Williams defense. Williams was able to hold Bates' leading scorer and the second leading scorer in Maine, Garvey, to just five points. Garvey was averaging 25 coming into the contest. The Ephs lead at half-time 43-23 and never looked back as they held on for a 95-54 victory in front of the 850 fans that were on hand for the game.
Hall lead the Bobcats in scoring will 11 points, while Marsh had nine, and first year guard Jesse Lynch (Mount Vernon, N.H.) added eight.
up next:
1/30 at Emerson
The Bates ski team improved one spot overall from the week before to fifth place out of 14 teams at the Saint Lawrence University Carnival Jan. 24-25, finishing behind Vermont, Middlebury, Dartmouth and New Hampshire and ahead f Williams.
Impressive results were turned in once again by the nordic team, with the women finishing third in the 15K freestyle, senior captain Katie Gould (Williamstown, Mass.) finishing ninth in 54:28.3, followed by junior Jen Bergeron (South Burlington, Vt.) and sophomore Becky Steer (Anchorage, Alaska) in 14th and 15th place. The men finished fourth in both the 15K relay and 20K freestyle. The junior trio of David Chamberlain (Wilton, Maine), Justin Freeman (Franklin, N.H.) and Christian Oberle (West Dover, Vt.) completed the relay in 33:36.4, while Chamberlain (one hour flat) and Freeman (1:00:09) finished sixth and seventh in the individual event.
In alpine competition, the women were led by a trio of first-year skiers. Sterling Tomkins (Aspen, Colo.) was the top finisher in the slalom, finishing 22nd in 1:32.43, and second in the giant slalom, coming in 28th in 149.80 seconds. Lisa Loeffler (Southington, Conn.) was first in the GS, coming 27th with a time of 149.03 seconds. Nellie Peck (Rockport, Maine) was second in the slalom and third in the giant slalom. For the men, senior captain Sean Clark (Raymond, Maine) finished 19th in the slalom with a time of 1:51.11, but the Bobcats were hurt when he was disqualified in the GS. Senior Kina Pickett (South Woodstock, Vt.) took second for the Bobcats in both events, finishing 18th in the giant slalom and 24th in the slalom, while senior Sandy Perrins (Placerville, Colo.) was the Bobcats' top GS finisher in 16th place with a time of 133.10 seconds.
1/31-2/1 at Vermont Carnival
On January 22nd the women hosted a very strong Bowdoin club, and fell 9-0. Determined to rebound from the Bowdoin match Bates traveled to Tufts to take on the 7-5 Jumbos. The team played a close match winning 7-2 with two matches won by Bates going five sets. Senior Helena Baldwin (Marion, Mass.) of Bates won 3-0 (2, 10-8, 2) in her number two match. In the number four match Bates senior Kara Buckstaff (Oshkosh, Wisc.) fell behind 2-0 but rebounded to take the victory over Tuft's Ahne Simonsen, 3-2 (6-9, 4-9, 9-5, 94, 9-3). Also posting victories for Bates where senior Katie McQuilkin (Cambridge, Mass.) 3-0, senior Lauren Cardonsky (New York, N.Y.) 3-2, senior Kiersten Scarpati (Burlington, Conn.) 3-0, first year student Janice Michaels (Princeton, N.J.) 3-0, and senior Rebecca Shankman (New Rochelle, N.Y.) 3-0.
2/2 at Brown
For the first time in the '90's, the men's squash team defeated Bowdoin, taking a tightly-contested 5-4 match Jan. 22. Despite losses by the top four players, the bottom of the ladder came through, winning the five through nine matches. Juniors Jason Graham (Brookline, Mass.) and Christian Stallkamp (Haverford, Pa.) and sophomore Sam Judd (Southwest Harbor, Maine) each won 3-1 and sophomore Peter Linkroum (Chester, Vt.) rallied from two sets down to even the score at four. Junior Eric Sanders (Beverly Hills, Cal.), playing at No. 5 was the last player to play. He dropped the first set 15-12, but rebounded to win the next two 15-6. The last two games were incredibly close, with Sanders losing the fourth, 15-13, but rallying to clinch the win, 15-12 in the decisive fifth set.
Against Tufts Jan. 25, the Bobcats had a much easier time, winning 8-1 and dropping just one game in the eight matches they won. Bates is now just two wins away from tying the single-season mark of 15 set last year, when they achieved their highest ranking ever at 15th.
1/27 vs. Colby
1/31-2/1 vs. Conn. College
In a pair of the closest meets the Bobcats are likely to see this season,
the men's team defeated Colby, 121-116, while the women lost, 127-115.
The men trailed for much of their meet, having won just two of the first 10 events. Sophomore Damon Bowe (Houma, La.) took the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 2:06.53, while diver David Burke (Andover, Mass.), sophomore Corey Smith (West Hartland, Conn.) and junior Michael Yee (Brookline, Mass.) swept the one-meter diving event. After 10 events, the Bobcats trailed 106-79, when the three divers again swept the top three spots, earning 16 points to none for Colby. Sophomore Chris Orpilla next won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:05.70. The Bobcats also took fourth and fifth to close to 113-107. The winner of the 400-yard freestyle relay would win the meet, regardless of who finished in second and third, and the team of senior Tatsuya Sato (Tokyo, Japan), junior Steve Simmons (Winter Park, Fla.), first-year swimmer Paul Urbanczyk (Washington, D.C.), and Bowe won the race in 3:24.58, to secure the victory, 121-116, the only time during the meet which they led.
The women also trailed Colby for the entire meet but were always within striking distance. The Bobcats received multiple victories from junior Denby Johnson (Chanhassen, Minn.) in the 100 butterfly (1:02.35) and 100 backstroke (1:03.29) and sophomore Joanne Murphy (West Hartford, Conn.) in the one- and three-meter diving events (192.7 and 213.1 points). Other winners for the women were sophomore Lisa Loughran (Middletown, Conn.) in the 1000-yard freestyle and first-year swimmers Marin Magat (Chapel Hill, N.C.) in the 100 freestyle and Liz Fey (Westport, Conn.) in the 100 breaststroke. Trailing 116-109 going into the 400-yard freestyle relay, the Bobcats needed to win and also place third or fourth, but came up three seconds short of first place.
2/1 at Tufts
A week after topping Tufts for first place at home, the Bobcats came in third behind the Jumbos and MIT and ahead of Worcester State, UMass Dartmouth and Rhode Island College Jan. 25.
At one point, the Bobcats won five straight races. Senior captain Chip Noble (Gorham, Maine) won the 400-meter dash in 52.61 seconds. Classmate Alec MacLachlan (Newburyport, Mass.) improved upon his school record in the 600 meters, running 1:25.31. First-year runner Matt Twiest (Albuquerque, N.M.) won the first of two races on the day, taking the 800 meters in 2:00.25. He later won the 1500 in 4:00.57. Senior captain Steve Beardsley (Melrose, Mass.) won the 1000 meters in 2:33.03. The 4-by-800- meter relay picked up the Bobcats' first relay win of the season. In the field events, sophomore Peter Beeson (Novelty, Ohio) won the pole vault with a height of 13 feet, nine inches, while the always impressive shot-putters took four of the top five spots in that event, led by junior Walter Jackson's (Hartford, Conn.) 48 foot, three inch heave.
Facing some of their toughest competition of the season, the women's indoor track team finished fifth behind Springfield, Williams, Colby and Tufts Jan. 25. Sophomore Adelia Myrick (Kodiak, Alaska) was the Bobcats' only winner, running the 1500 meters in 4:46.76, just off her NCAA national provisional qualifying time from the previous week. First-year runner Kate Burakowski (Derry, N.H) took third in the 1000 meters with a time of 3:13.04. Other top five performances were turned in by first-year runner Tracy Lyford (Portsmouth, N.H.) in the 800 meters, senior captain Ilse Abusamra (Brentwood, N.H.) in the 5000 meters, senior Heather Bumps (Albion, Maine) in the 20-pound weight throw and senior Gillian Casey (North Reading, Mass.) in the long jump, all of whom took third place
2/1 New England Challenge Cup Meet at Smith
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