LEWISTON, Maine -- The Bates men's basketball team's three captains led the way in the 2012-13 season opener, as the Bobcats outscored UMaine-Augusta 46-19 in the second half to turn a 37-24 halftime advantage into an 83-43 rout in Friday night's second game of the Bates Tipoff Classic in Alumni Gymnasium.
In the opening game of the four-team tournament, Emerson College defeated Fisher College 62-48. Bates (1-0) will face Emerson (1-0) in the championship game tomorrow at 4pm, following the consolation game at 2pm that will pit Fisher (3-1) against UMA (0-3).
Bates senior captain Ed Bogdanovich (Portland, Maine) scored 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting, including a pair of dunks, to go with eight rebounds. Junior captain Luke Matarazzo (Shelton, Conn.) added 17 points and senior captain Mark Brust (Duxbury, Mass.) contributed 16 points and a team-high four assists. Sophomore Graham Safford (Hampden, Maine) grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds to go with three assists.
First-year guard Walker Cooper (Chelsea, Maine) led the Moose with 13 points on 5-of-21 shooting, and sophomore Andrew Pullen (Augusta, Maine) added 11 points on 5-of-18 shooting.
Fifteen Bates players saw five or more minutes of action, giving the 310 spectators in attendance an extended look at some of the Bobcats' veteran bench players and first-year players. Rookie Mike Boornazian (Portland, Conn.) scored seven points to go with five rebound, and sophomore Adam Philpott (Gloucester, Mass.) added five points and four rebounds in an active eight minutes.
Second-half highlights from off Bates' bench included junior Derek Murphy's (Lowell, Mass.) no-look dish to Bogdanovich for a dunk, a hook shot in the paint by senior Taylor Gartley (Rockport, Maine), a steal followed by a running floater by sophomore Cam Kaubris (Rumford, Maine) and a 3-pointer in the corner by senior John Murphy (Yarmouth, Maine).
Matarazzo sparked Bates early on, scoring 14 of his points in the first half. After UMA's Darrel Stephen opened the second period with a layup, Matarazzo responded with his third three of the game from the left corner on a feed by junior Sean Cunningham (Amherst, Mass.) to reclaim a 14-point advantage, at 40-26. Bogdanovich then scored eight points in a three-minute span as Bates grew its lead to 58-30 with 12:52 left in the game. Brust then took the torch, scoring a layup on a give-and-go from Bogdanovich, the first of four buckets in the paint by the guard over a span of 3:07, which gave Bates a 68-32 edge. Back-to-back threes by Philpott and John Murphy gave Bates a 40-point advantage, at 74-34 with 6:56 left to play.
UMA was held to 32.2 percent shooting from the field (19-59), including a 3-23 performance from three-point land (13.0%). Bates shot 50.0% from the field for the game (33-66), but only 7-27 from behind the arc (25.9%).