Courtesy Bates Sports Information

Box Score

LEWISTON, Maine - Bates College pulled away from Amherst College in the second half for a 63-53 victory in the quarterfinal round of the NESCAC Women's Basketball Championship Saturday at Alumni Gymnasium.

Bates (15-9), seeded third in the tournament, went on a 16-2 run to start the second half after leading 34-32 at the break. Amherst, the No. 6 seed, drops to 12-13.

Bates will face No. 2 seed Tufts in the tournament semifinals next Saturday at Bowdoin College.

Senior Katie Franklin (New Preston, Conn.) led Bates with a game-high 15 points, shooting 5-for-9 from three-point land. Junior Sarah Barton (Portsmouth, N.H.) dished out eight assists to go with 11 points and six rebounds, and junior Matia Kostakis (Andover, Mass.) added 11 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore Val Beckwith failed to score in double figures for only the third time this season, but still contributed a team-high eight rebounds to go with eight points.

Amherst junior Shaina Pollack (Great Neck, N.Y.) led the Lord Jeffs with 12 points. Senior Jenny Muller (Andover, Mass.) added nine points.  Junior Stefanie Reiff (Hinsdale, Ill.) chipped in with eight points and seven rebounds while sophomore Kerry O'Loughlin (Stow, Mass.) also scored eight points to go with five rebounds.

The lead changed hands eight times in a back-and-forth first period.  Bates got out to an 8-2 lead, but the Jeffs charged back to tie it at 10 on an O'Loughlin three with 12:19 to play. Both teams relied on the three-pointer for much of their offense in the first period, with Amherst hitting 6-of-12 shots behind the arc and Bates making 5-of-10.  Muller hit a three for a 22-18 Amherst lead with 6:38 to play in the half, but Bates answered with a Kostakis layup and a Franklin three, both assisted by Barton, for a 24-22 Bates lead with 4:22 to play.

Pollack and Barton traded jumpers, then traded threes, so the Bobcats maintained a 29-27 lead with 2:54 to play. After a three by Amherst junior Anne-Claire Roesch (Westport, Conn.), Barton then assisted on consecutive hoops by first-years Lauren Yanofsky (Belmont, Mass.) and Teal Carroll (Norwich, Vt.) for a 34-30 Bates lead. A jumper by Reiff closed out the half.

Kostakis hit the first two hoops of the second half, then Franklin drained a three for a 41-32 lead with 17:16 to play. Beckwith, the Bobcats' leading scorer at 17.7 points per game, converted her first hoop of the day to make it 43-32.

Amherst first-year Samantha Swensen (Rockaway Park, N.Y.) made a layup for Amherst's first points of the half at the 16:08 mark, but Franklin canned another three at the other end. The Jeffs missed their next seven shots while Beckwith hit two more hoops to extend the lead to 16, 50-34, with 13:38 left.

Amherst crawled back into the game with seven unanswered points, including a pair of free throws and a three by sohpomore Sarah Johnston (Pelham Manor, N.Y.). But Beckwith hit a jumper and Franklin drained her fifth three-pointer to build the lead back to 14, 55-41, with 7:37 to play.

Amherst crept back to within seven, 60-53, with 1:37 to play, scoring six unanswered points on hoops by Pollack, Reiff and O'Loughlin. But a three by Bates senior Maggie Fitzgerald (Wethersfield, Conn.) sealed the victory.

Amherst defeated Bates on Jan. 13 at Amherst by a 65-51 score. The Jeffs finished the season with five consecutive losses, while the Bobcats have won six of their past eight games.