FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bates Women's Basketball Earns Weekly Honors

LEWISTON, Maine -- The Bates College women's basketball team continues to accumulate regional honors. Sarah Bonkovsky of Harvard, Mass., starting center for the Bobcats, has been named New England Women's Basketball Association (NEWBA) Player of the Week, while first-year guard Colleen McCrave of Walpole, Mass., was named Rookie of the Week by the Maine Women's Basketball Coaches Association (MWBCA).

Bonkovsky earned her honor with a record-setting performance in the Bobcats' 103-59 win over Colby-Sawyer College on Jan. 7. In that game, she scored a school record 37 points on 17-for-22 shooting from the field and three-for-three from the free-throw line. She also pulled down 11 rebounds, made two steals and had one assists and one block. Bonkovsky's 37 points eclipsed the previous record of 36, jointly held by by Lisa Kelley (1986) and Julie Roche (1990), while her 17 field goals also set a school mark.

For the season, Bonkovsky is tied for the team lead in scoring, averaging 18.8 points per game, second in the state of Maine. She is also tops on the team in rebounding (7.6 rebounds per game), and free-throw percentage (17-for-17). She is the second Bobcat player honored by NEWBA this season. First-year forward A.T. Taylor of Orono, Maine, was named NEWBA Co-Rookie of the Week for the week of Dec. 9, when she led Bates to the championship of the Babson Invitational.

McCrave earned MWBCA honors with an impressive game against Colby-Sawyer. Against the Chargers, she recorded a triple-double, tallying 17 points, 12 steals and 10 assists. The 12 steals broke Julie Ludden's 1992 single-game record which McCrave tied on Nov. 25 against the University of the South. She has since topped herself again, with 14 thefts in the Bobcats 90-58 win over Thomas College

Eight games into her rookie season, McCrave is putting up some impressive numbers. She is second in the NCAA Division III national ranking with 66 steals in eight games, an 8.3 steals per game average. McCrave averages 15.2 points per game, fourth on the Bobcats, and 5.4 assists per game, second on the team and fifth in Maine. She is also the second Bobcat to win the MWBCA Rookie of the Week, which Taylor also won on Dec. 9.

Bates, with a 6-2 record, is off to its best start in five years and is ranked fifth in the MWBCA poll. Second-year head coach Jim Murphy '69 has led the Bobcats to four straight wins after starting the season 2-2. Bates is outscoring its opponents this season 85-61.5, putting them among the top ten in NCAA Division III women's basketball in scoring offense and margin. "That was our magical game of the season so far," Murphy said of the Colby-Sawyer game. "But the team was disappointed that they didn't play as well the next time [against Thomas]. I had to tell them that there is nothing wrong with scoring 90 points in a game. What a difference a year makes," referring to the Bobcats' 7-15 record last season.

Bonkovsky is a 1993 graduate of The Bromfeld School. She is the daughter of Herbert and Marilyn Bonkovsky, 80 Slough Road, Harvard.

McCrave is a 1995 graduate of Walpole High School. She is the daughter of William and Annmarie McCrave, 6 Eagle Drive, Walpole.