- Mike Boornazian made four 3-pointers over 106 seconds in the second half to help Bates pull away from Washington & Lee on Dec. 19, 2012, at the Daytona Beach Shootout. File photo by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Bates first-year Mike Boornazian scored a game- and season-high 20 points, hitting four 3-pointers in a span of 1:46 late in the second half, to lead the Bobcats to a 66-61 victory over Washington and Lee at the Daytona Beach Shootout on Wednesday afternoon.
Bates evened its record at 5-5 with its second straight win. The Bobcats will take on Concordia University of Wisconsin at 4pm on Thursday to wrap up their Florida trip (Live Stats). W&L dropped to 4-4.
Boornazian (Portland, Conn.) gave the Bobcats their first significant lead of the game when his three-point play at the 12:45 mark ignited a 10-2 run that gave Bates a 20-12 lead with 8:10 left in the first half.
W&L responded with five straight points coming on a three-pointer by Patrick O'Connor and a layup by J.D. Ey to make it 20-17 with 6:54 left in the half. Bates senior John Murphy (Yarmouth, Maine) hit a three the next time down to bump the lead back to 23-17. Sophomore Graham Safford (Hampden, Maine) and Boornazian sandwiched a jumper by Ey with a pair of threes, and Bates maintained a 33-24 lead at the break.
Bates expanded its lead by a point, at 41-31, over the first 8:34 of the second half. Then the Generals strung together a 14-7 run over the next 5:11 to pull within three (48-45) with 6:15 left in the game. Larry Whitaker keyed the run by scoring eight points during the stretch, going 6-for-6 at the foul line, while Bobcat senior Mark Brust (Duxbury, Mass.) helped Bates hold on to its tenuous lead with a three followed by a jumper with 6:53 to go.
Bates regained a comfortable margin in a decisive 12-3 run for a 60-48 lead with 4:17 to play, with Boornazian hitting four triples in a span of 1:06, three of them assisted by junior Luke Matarazzo (Shelton, Conn.), and the other by Brust.
The Generals climbed to within four points (65-61) on a three by Ey with 31 seconds remaining, but could get no closer despite the Bobcats missing 3-of-4 free throws in the final 26 seconds.
As a team, W&L shot just 36.4 percent (16-44) from the field, but made 23-of-27 (.852) free throws and held a 37-27 advantage on the boards. Javon McDonald tallied a team-high 14 points, while Ey had 13 points, a game-high 14 rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Whitaker added 13 points and nine boards.
Boornazian's effort was supplemented by 14 points from Safford, 13 points from Brust and 11 points from senior center Ed Bogdanovich (Portland, Maine). Safford and Bogdanovich shared the team rebounding lead with five apiece, while Safford and Matarazzo dished out four assists apiece. The Bobcats hit 10-of-21 (.476) three-point attempts in the contest, with Boornazian making 5-of-6 total in a 7-for-9 overall effort from the floor.