Women’s basketball opens with 84-68 win over Geneseo
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Val Beckwith ’09 |
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Matia Kostakis ’08 |
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Sarah Barton ’08 |
STATS: Bates 84, SUNY Geneseo 68
BABSON PARK, Mass. — Sophomore Val Beckwith (Woburn, Mass.) scored a career-high 21 points to lead the Bates College women’s basketball team to a season-opening 84-68 win over SUNY Geneseo on Saturday, in the opening round of the Irving Oil/Babson Invitational.
Bates (1-0) advanced to the championship game of the tournament to face host Babson Sunday at 3 p.m.
Juniors Matia Kostakis (Andover, Mass.) and Sarah Barton (Portsmouth, N.H.) both came up with big games as well for Bates. Kostakis scored 14 points, grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds and made three steals. Barton added 17 points with seven assists, five rebounds, five steals and two blocks. First-year Lauren Yanofsky (Belmont, Mass.) had a strong debut off the bench with 12 points, six rebounds and two blocks.
Annie Verdino led the Blue Knights (0-1) with 21 points and nine rebounds. Katy Irving added 16 points and Amanda Haney had 14 points and nine rebounds. Geneseo shot 54.8 percent from the floor in the first half, yet trailed 46-38 at the break, then mustered only seven field goals out of 28 attempts in the second half.
Bates used an 8-0 run midway through the first half to open up a 23-13 advantage. Geneseo eventually whittled the lead down to six before heading into the break down, 46-38. The Knights remained within striking distance for the first eight minutes of the second stanza, but the Bobcats exploded for a 12-1 run to build a commanding 74-53 lead with 5:45 left to play. Geneseo never threatened after that.
Geneseo will face Colby in the tournament consolation game on Sunday.
Bates outscored Geneseo 40-18 in the paint but was outrebounded by a 45-37 margin. Geneseo committed 25 turnovers to the Bobcats’ 17.