GALLOWAY, NJ (March 5) – Sean Kett finished with 26 points and eight rebounds but the Saint Vincent men's basketball team fell 92-80 to the Bates College Bobcats in the first round of the Division III Men's Basketball Tournament, hosted by Stockton University.

With the loss, SVC finishes the season at 22-7 overall. Bates improves to 20-6 and will face Friday night's winner of Stockton and Endicott on Saturday night with a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line.

After an early basket for Bates, SVC scored the next eight points to take an 8-2 lead over Bates. Junior guard Pat Jones first hit a jumper before JC Howard and Ben Klimchock connected on back-to-back three pointers.

The SVC offense then went cold and Bates went to work, using a 14-1 run to take a 16-9 advantage with 8:45 to play in the opening half of play.

Junior guard Jaylon Bell tried to spark SVC, making consecutive layups on drives to the basket, cutting the SVC deficit to 16-13 with 7:48 to play in the half.

After a Bates layup, Howard converted a three-point shot to cut into the Bobcats lead, at 18-16 with 7:14 to play in the half.

Bates worked their lead to 25-18 at the 4:11 mark before Jones made four straight at the charity stripe, making the Bates lead 25-22. However, Bates closed the half strong, outscoring 10-3 to push their lead to 35-25 at halftime.

The Bobcats built upon their lead, pushing the advantage their largest of the game, at 60-38 with 11:46 to play. SVC did a nice job to work its way back into the game, using a 10-3 run over the next two-plus minutes to cut the deficit to 63-48. Six of the points during the run came from Kett.

Bates pushed the lead back over 20 (73-52) with 6:41 to play. SVC countered with another large run, outscoring the Bobcats 15-4 over the next few minutes, making it 77-67 Bates with 4:35 to play. Again it was Kett trying to will the Bearcats back into the game, scoring seven points during the spurt. Throw in a thunderous dunk by John LeGrande and the Bearcats had life.

The Bobcats, in their first tournament appearance, had an answer. They pushed their lead back to 14 points (83-69) with 3:09 to play. A three-pointer from Howard cut the Bearcats deficit back to single digits, at 84-75 with 1:57 to play. However, that was as close as Saint Vincent would get.

Bell finished with 16 points and three steals. Howard (14) and Jones (12) also finished in double figures in scoring for the Bearcats. SVC made 27 of 33 free throw attempts (81.8 percent). Kett was 16 of 20 from the charity stripe in the loss.

Bobcats point guard Graham Safford finished with 30 points and 10 assists. After being off for 13 days, Bates showed no signs of rust, shooting 52.5 percent from the field in the contest. The Bobcats hit seven three-pointers and converted 21 of 31 free throw attempts in the contest. The 92 points was the second most this season for Bates.

The game was the last for Kett, who helped the Bearcats to three straight Presidents' Athletic Conference and appearances in the NCAA Tournament. Kett finished his career with 971 points and 668 rebounds. SVC put together a 49-5 home record at the Carey Center over the past four seasons.