Women's basketball team routs Williams, 90-67
January 17, 2009

Yanofsky

Beckwith

Igoe

McCall
LEWISTON, Maine -- The Bates College women's basketball team routed Williams College 90-67 Saturday at Alumni Gym to complete a 2-0 start to the NESCAC season.

The win was the third in a row for the Bobcats (13-4, 2-0 NESCAC) and avenges an 84-63 defeat to the Ephs on Jan. 4 in the championship game of the Williams Winter Classic. That was the last time the Ephs (5-11, 0-2), now on a five-game slide, won a game.

Junior Lauren Yanofsky (Belmont, Mass.) scored a season-high 20 points to go with 7 rebounds and 4 assists for Bates, while senior Val Beckwith (Woburn, Mass.) added 16 with 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Sophomore Jessie Igoe (Lexington, Mass.) added 12 points and 6 rebounds, while sophomore Christine McCall (Lowell, Mass.) chipped in with 10 points and 7 rebounds in just 11 minutes of play from off the bench.

Jessica Harris led the Ephs with 18 points and 7 rebounds, while Taylor Shea scored 13 points off the bench. Jill Greenberg dished out 5 assists and grabbed 6 rebounds.

The Bobcats' 90 points were a season high and based on an efficient offense that accumulated a season-high 29 assists on 35 field goals. Bates shot 48.6 percent (35-72) from the field and 86.7% (13-15) at the foul line and outrebounded Williams 44-36.

For the second straight game, Bates never trailed. The Bobcats held the Ephs to just 7 field goals on 33 attempts (21.2%) in the first half and jumped out to a 15-4 lead with an 11-0 run, including seven points by Beckwith. Williams responded with seven straight points, including a three-point play by Harris, to close it to 15-11, but Bates came back with a 22-5 run for a commanding 37-16 lead with 4:36 left in the half. The Bobcats ended the period with eight straight points, including four free throws by first-year Lauren Dobish (Chambersburg, Pa.) and a layup by McCall, assisted by Dobish, before the buzzer to put the Bobcats ahead 50-22 at intermission.

Williams was unable to cut the lead into the teens throughout the second half, despite vastly improving its shooting to a 52.9% clip (18-34) in the period. A layup by first-year Annie Burns (Topsfield, Mass.), who notched 7 assists, on an assist by sophomore Brittney French (Auburn, Maine) gave Bates a game-high 30-point advantage at 82-52 with 5:27 left. Williams cut it to 21 with under 2 minutes to play with a 13-4 streak, with a three-pointer by Mike Peterman and a pair of hoops by Ana Rodriguez-Villa, which was the closest margin since late in the first half.

Bates next plays at Bowdoin on Friday at 7 p.m., followed by a game at Colby next Saturday at 3 p.m. Williams will host Wesleyan on Friday at 7 p.m. and Connecticut College on Saturday at 3.

STATS: Bates 90, Williams 67