FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BATES WOMEN GARNER BYE IN NCAA TOURNAMENT NORTHEAST REGION

LEWISTON, Maine Ð The Bates College women's basketball team, champions of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), will make their fourth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament on March 4 at 2 p.m.. The Bobcats (21-3, 8-1 NESCAC) have earned a first-round bye and will face Clark University of Worcester, Mass., in the second round. The Cougars (20-8) defeated Norwich, 63-58, in the first round.

"We came through a tough stretch to earn the right to host a first-round game," said head coach Jim Murphy '69, referring to yesterday's three-point win over Colby and a four-point victory over Williams a week earlier. "But the Alumni Gym crowd has always supported us very well. It should be an exciting game."

The Bobcats enter the tournament having won nine straight games, the second-longest winning streak in school history. They ended the regular season with a perfect 12-0 record on their home court, outscoring opponents by nearly 24 points a game in Alumni Gymnasium. Overall, Bates was 19th in the nation in scoring offense in the most recent NCAA Division III statistical report, averaging 75.4 points per game, while their 19.7 point margin of victory was 18th best.

The Bobcats are led by senior co-captains Emily King (Lebanon, N.H.) and Jolene Thurston (Post Mills, Vt.), who share the school record with 100 career games played. King is a 1999 Women's Basketball Coaches' Association (WBCA) Honorable Mention All-American forward who is Bates's all-time leading scorer with 1,463 points. The 2000 NESCAC Player of the Year, King needs just 11 rebounds for 815 in her career, which would also be a Bates record. Thurston is an All-NESCAC and All-ECAC guard who also earned GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-District honors in 1999.

Clark earned an automatic bid out of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC). The Cougars have won both meetings with Bates, but the most recent showdown was in 1985. Clark got 17 points from senior Marissa Garrity, the NEWMAC Player of the Year, in their win over Norwich. Garrity averages 20.1 points per game, 12th best in the NCAA. The Cougars carry a nine-game winning streak into Saturday's contest.

Tickets to the game will cost $3 for students with IDs and senior citizens, $4 for the general public. Tickets will be on sale in the lobby of Alumni Gym from 10 a.m. to noon and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on March 3 and again beginning at 11 a.m. on the day of the game.

The game will be broadcast over the radio in Lewiston over the Bates College station, WRBC 91.5, by the broadcast team of Paul Zinn '01 and Andy Stanton '01. WRBC will carry the game live over the Internet. For more information on WRBC's Internet broadcast, visit their web site at http://www.bates.edu/wrbc/listen.html.

The game will also be carried over TEAMLINE¨. TEAMLINE¨ can be accessed by dialing 1-800-846-4798 and entering Bates' code number, 0424. For a fee of 50 cents a minute for the first hour and 20 cents a minute thereafter, you can hear Bates basketball from anywhere in the contiguous United States. For more information on TEAMLINE¨, call 1-800-225-5321.

The complete bracket is available at http://www.d3hoops.com/danbury/00/wpairs00.htm