Basketball teams set for playoff doubleheader at Bowdoin
LEWISTON, Maine — The Bates College men’s and women’s basketball teams are preparing this week, while most of their fellow students are on Winter Break, for this weekend’s unique doubleheader.
Both the Bates women and men are seeded fifth in the NESCAC Championships, and they will play at No. 4 seed Bowdoin College in back-to-back games on Saturday. The women’s game tips off at 2 p.m. and the men’s game starts at 4 p.m. Both games are rematches of last Saturday’s regular season finales, both Bates wins.
Tickets are $3 for adults and $1 for children. One ticket is good for admission to both games.
Tickets can be purchased at the Bowdoin Athletic Department Office in Morrell Gymnasium from 1-4 p.m. Thursday and continuing through the day on Friday, from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Tickets will also be sold at the door beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
The game can be followed over the Internet via live statistics and a live webcast.
Live stats:
http://www.bowdoin.edu/~jcaton/liveStats/xlive.htm
Live webcast:
http://www.bowdoin.edu/video/athletics-live.shtml
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| Sarah Barton ’08 averages 9.5 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game vs. Bowdoin this year. |
Women’s Game Preview
Bowdoin (17-7, 6-3 NESCAC) defeated Bates (15-9, 5-4) 64-57 in a non-league game on Feb. 5 in Brunswick, led in part by Jill Anelauskas, who scored 14 points with 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Bates senior Meg Coffin missed the game with the flu. Anelauskas was in street clothes in the conference rematch on Saturday in Lewiston while Coffin was in uniform, and the Bobcats took the rematch 62-52, ending a five-game skid against the Polar Bears. Key for Bates was senior Matia Kostakis (Andover, Mass.), who turned in her best performance of the season with 20 points and 8 rebounds.
The Polar Bears have never lost a tournament game in playoff history and sport a 20-0 all-time tournament record. Bates, meanwhile, has reached the semifinals every year the championship has been held. The quarterfinal showdown between the Route 196 rivals will be the fifth in playoff history but the first in the quarterfinals: the previous four meetings occurred in the championship game between 2003 and 2006.
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| The Bates men hope to see the return of Brian Ellis ’11 (center) to their lineup. |
Men’s Game Preview
The men’s game at 4 p.m. will feature fourth-seeded Bowdoin (19-5, 6-3 NESCAC) hosting fifth-seeded Bates (17-7, 5-4 NESCAC) for the second weekend in a row. The Bobcats rallied from a four-point deficit in the final 24 seconds of Saturday’s match to defeat the Polar Bears 65-62. It was the second win of the season for Bates over Bowdoin, after the Bobcats edged their Route 196 rivals by a 66-65 score on December 1 in Lewiston. The two squads are arguably the two hottest teams in the NESCAC at the moment, with Bates going 8-2 in its last 10 outings while Bowdoin is 7-3. Having already set a program record for wins with 19 this season, the Polar Bears are looking to reach the semifinals for the first time in championship history, while the Bobcats are hoping to make the semifinals for the fourth time in five years. Saturday’s showdown will be the third quarterfinal meeting between the two, with Bates winning both previous meetings (2004, 2006).
The primary item of concern for Bates (17-7, 5-4 NESCAC) this week is the status of first-year forward Brian Ellis (Braintree, Mass.), who was the victim of a flagrant foul away from the ball only 3 seconds into the second period in a Feb. 12 game at UMaine-Farmington. Ellis was struck in the head by a Farmington player and suffered a concussion, causing him to miss the Bobcats’ games last weekend against Colby and Bowdoin. Ellis scored a game-high 22 points in the Dec. 1 game against Bowdoin, hitting 8 of 11 shots from the field including 3 of 4 three-pointers. The clear favorite for the NESCAC Rookie of the Year Award, Ellis is second on the Bobcats in scoring (14.1 points per game) and rebounding (5.0 rpg). He ranks seventh in the conference in scoring and ninth in field goal percentage (.556). Bates will certainly get a boost if Ellis returns to the lineup on Saturday.