Women's hoops to face Middlebury in NESCAC tourney

By virtue of their 77-59 victory over Trinity College on Feb. 17, the women’s basketball team has advanced to the semifinals of the New England Small College Athletic Conference tournament. The Bobcats will face Middlebury at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. Ticket prices are $5 for adults and $2 for students and children under 18.

The Bobcats, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, avenged one of their two regular-season conference losses with the win over Trinity. Junior forward Carla Flaherty of Gorham led four Bates players in double figures with 18 points. Sophomore Lauren Dubois of Beverly, Mass., had a fine all-around game with 11 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and two steals.

Bates takes on No. 2 Middlebury in the semifinals and will hope to win against the only other conference team that beat them in the regular season. The Panthers took a 58-50 victory in Vermont on Feb. 8. The 50 points was the lowest total posted by the Bobcats this season.

A win by Bates in that game and victory by top seed Bowdoin over No. 4 Williams in Saturday’s first game would set up a Colby-Bates-Bowdoin showdown in the NESCAC finals with a berth to the NCAA tournament on the line. The finals, to be played at noon Sunday, Feb. 24, will be the rubber match in the season series between the two teams. Bowdoin won in Brunswick, 65-51, on Jan. 22, but Bates handed the 22-1 Polar Bears their only loss of the season less than two weeks later, 56-54 in the Alumni Gymnasium. Bates senior Kate Dockery of New York, N.Y., hit two free throws with six-tenths of a second left on the clock to give Bates the win in that game.