Women’s basketball cruises past visiting Wentworth, 75-49
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| Now with 1,111 career points, Val Beckwith ’09 has moved from 13th to 9th place on Bates’ all-time scoring list over the past two games. |
LEWISTON, Maine — The Bates College women’s basketball team rolled over the Wentworth Institute of Technology 75-49 Thursday night in a non-conference game at Alumni Gymnasium.
Twelve players scored for the Bobcats (4-1), led by senior Val Beckwith (Woburn, Mass.) with 20 points, sophomore Maggie DePoy (Chicago, Ill.) with a career-high 17 and first-year Amanda Gifford (Lee, Maine) with a career-high 10. DePoy shot 6-for-11 from the field, hitting 5 of 10 three-point attempts.
Kirsten Vallone scored 15 points to go with 10 rebounds and 3 blocked shots for the visiting Leopards (1-6), while Michelle Moffo added 9 points and 14 rebounds. Michelle Fauci notched 7 steals for the visitors, and Margo Ward came up with 8 points and 8 rebounds.
Bates trailed early on, 9-8, before embarking on a 24-5 run over a span of less than eight minutes to take control of the game. Gifford started the run with a steal and a layup to put Bates ahead for good at 10-9, and she bookended the streak with a jumper in the lane that was quickly followed by a steal and another layup, which put the Bobcats ahead 32-14 with 6:17 left in the first half. Bates went on to lead by as much as 24, at 39-15 after a DePoy’s third 3-pointer of the half, and went into halftime wtiha 42-24 edge.
Wentworth whittled the lead to 15 to start the second half on a free throw by Moffo and a layup by Fauci, but Bates held the Leopards scoreless over the next five minutes while extending the lead back to 21 on a pair of layups by Gifford and a layup by Beckwith. Beckwith hit another layup at the 12:54 mark and DePoy followed with a three at 12:16 for a 24-point edge, and Bates kept its lead in the twenties the rest of the way while head coach Jim Murphy gave his reserves extended playing time. Bates took a 40-8 edge in bench points in the game.
Only two players didn’t enter the scoring column for the Bobcats, and one of them, first-year guard Annie Burns (Topsfield, Mass.), matched her career-high with 9 assists. Sophomore Christine McCall (Lowell, Mass.) also stood out for Bates, recording team highs of 7 rebounds and 3 blocked shots to go with 5 points.
Beckwith’s 20 points moved her past Amy Schrag ’91 and Julie Roche ’91 into ninth place on Bates’ all-time scoring list, with 1,111 career points.
Bates will play host to UMaine-Farmington on Saturday at 2 p.m., the third non-league game in five days for the Bobcats. Wentworth plays at Mount Ida on Saturday at 1 p.m.