WATERVILLE, Maine -- Marcus Delpeche scored a game-high 16 points, Mike Boornazianpoured in 15 of his own, and the Bates men's basketball team pulled away in the second half to knock off Maine-Fort Kent 86-65 Sunday afternoon in the Charlie Ryan Classic.
Delpeche '17 (Wilmington, Del.) also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, narrowly missing a double-double. He shot 7-10 from the field and six of his nine rebounds were on the offensive glass.
Boornazian '16 (Portland, Conn.) shot 7-12 from the field and hauled in five boards. Meanwhile sophomore point guard Shawn Strickland (Middletown, Conn.) dished out a game-high seven assists.
Maine-Fort Kent (4-4) hung in there with the Bobcats (2-0) in the first half. For the second straight night, Bates got off to a fast start, sprinting out to a 15-3 lead on a Boornazian layup with 15:23 to go in the first half.
But the Bengals rallied to cut the Bates lead to three points on a Qaadir Ali layup with 13 seconds to go in the first half. Bates got the last laugh in the half when Jerome Darling '17 (Hartford, Conn.) hit a three with four seconds left to put Bates up 39-33 at the break.
The second half featured a remarkable 21-0 run by the Bobcats to put the game out of reach. Up 45-40 with 15:10 to go in the game, Bates got a bucket from Boornazian. Then Marcus Delpeche followed with a dunk and a layup. Boornazian hit a jumper and Darling hit a jumper. Justin Zukowski '18 (Portland, Maine) hit a pair of free throws. Marcus Delpeche split a pair of free throws and Josh Britten '16 (Yarmouth, Maine) hit one of his three three-pointers of the night. That was followed by a Marcus Delpeche layup and a Quin Leary '17 (Auburn, Maine) three-pointer.
When the dust cleared the Bobcats led 66-40 with under eight minutes to go in the game.
The Bengals couldn't get any closer than to within 19 points down the stretch as Bates finished the weekend 2-0.
The Bobcats shot 46.2% from the field in the win compared to the Bengals' 37.7% mark.
Bates visits the University of Southern Maine on Tuesday for their next game. The tip is set for 7:30 p.m.