Women’s basketball overpowers Wentworth, 73-46
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Meg Coffin ’08 tied assistant coach Carla Flaherty ’03 at sixth on Bates’ career points list, with 1,143.
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BOSTON — The Bates College women’s basketball team overpowered Wentworth Institute with a 50-4 advantage in points in the paint, in a 73-46 non-league victory Tuesday night at Tansey Gymnasium. Bates outscored Wentworth 27-2 over a period of 9 minutes and 49 seconds that spanned both halves to secure the victory.
Improbably, considering the inside scoring difference, each team had identical totals of 42 rebounds, 13 offensive and 29 defensive.
Senior center Meg Coffin (Westford, Mass.) had game highs of 16 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocked shots to lead the Bobcats (11-6). She moved into a tie with assistant coach Carla Flaherty ’03 for sixth on Bates’ all-time scoring list, with 1,143 points. It was the 29th double-double of Coffin’s career.
Junior Val Beckwith (Woburn, Mass.) added 13 points, 4 assists and 4 steals while senior Sarah Barton (Portsmouth, dished out nine assists with 3 steals and 6 points. Senior Matia Kostakis (Andover, Mass.) supported the cause with 8 points and 6 boards.
Emily Cring had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the host Leopards (8-9), with Meaghan Gardner adding 10 points.
The Bobcats jumped out to an 8-2 lead three minutes into the contest, thanks in part to four points from Coffin. The Leopards went on an 8-0 run over the next 3:47 to take their only lead of the game, 10-8.
Bates tied the game on a lay-up from first-year forward Christine McCall (Lowell, Mass.) on the next possession and used that to begin a scoring spurt of 16-4 and took a 24-14 lead with 5:57 left in the half. Wentworth trimmed the lead to seven on a three-pointer by sophomore guard Angela Tucker, but a 12-0 run over the final 4:29 of the half put the Bobcats up by 19 (36-17) after 20 minutes of play.
The first half saw the hosts shoot just 20.7 (6-for-29) from the floor and commit 15 turnovers. The Bobcats took full advantage, scoring 12 points off of those miscues and also outscoring the Leopards 26-0 in the paint.
Bates opened the second half the same way it ended the first half, scoring 15 of the first 17 points of the period, putting them ahead by a 51-19 score with 14:40 left to play. Wentworth’s shooting woes continued in the second half, as the Leopards shot 30.4 percent while allowing the Bobcats to connect on 53.1 percent of their shots.
Bates has a road NESCAC weekend coming up, at Wesleyan on Friday at 7 p.m. and at Connecticut College on Saturday at 3 p.m.
BOX SCORE: Bates 73, Wentworth 46