Coffin, women’s basketball tipped by Presidents
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| Meg Coffin ’08 scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds in her season debut. |
NASSAU, Bahamas — The Bates College women’s basketball team welcomed Meg Coffin back into the fold on Wednesday at the Bahamas Sunshine Shootout, losing a non-league contest 61-55 to Washington & Jefferson College.
The Presidents (8-2) won the three-team tournament, having defeated Washington (Md.) College on Tuesday. Bates (3-3) will play Washington (4-4) on Thursday, starting at 12 p.m.
In her first basketball game since the 2005-06 season, Coffin, an All-America center and the NESCAC Player of the Year in 2006, started and played 30 minutes, scoring eight points and pulling down six rebounds. She missed the entire 2006-07 season with torn knee ligaments.
The Presidents led wire-to-wire, getting out to an early lead and building it to as many as 22 points in the first half, and led 36-23 at the half. The Bobcats nearly came back from a 15-point deficit early in the second half, closing the gap to two (55-53) with 3:05 left on a pair of Coffin free throws.
Stephanie Smith and Maggie Gibson scored 11 points apiece, while Emily Hays added 10 to lead a balanced W&J offense. Gibson led the Presidents with 10 rebounds and five assists.
Junior Val Beckwith (Woburn, Mass.) scored a game-high 18 points to go with 10 rebounds and four steals for Bates. Sarah Barton (Portsmouth, N.H.) added four assists and four steals.
After the holiday break, Bates travels to Springfield College for the Holiday Inn Naismith Classic, where they’ll play William Paterson on Jan. 3 at 3 p.m.
BOX SCORE: Washington & Jefferson 61, Bates 55