BANGOR, Maine -- The Bates men's basketball team rode the three-point shooting of freshman Tom Coyne in the first half and senior Jerome Darling in the second half, and withstood a late barrage of threes by the host Eagles, coming away with a 72-62 victory at Husson on Saturday afternoon.
Husson (3-1) suffered its first loss this season while Bates rose to 4-2.
Coyne (Falmouth, Maine) had his career-high in points well before the end of the first half. He made 4-of-6 3-pointers in the opening period and added a fifth three early in the second half, finishing with 15 points.
Coyne's three with 16:18 left in the game helped Bates recover from Husson retaking the lead with 16:44 to go, putting the Bobcats up for good at 38-36.
Soon after, the hot hand was seemingly passed to Darling (Hartford, Conn.), who outdueled Husson guards Raheem Anderson (20 points) and Eli Itkin (11 points) with 14 points over the final 11 minutes, making 4-of-6 three-point attempts in that time. Darling shrugged off a 1-for-8 shooting performance in the first half to finish with a team-high 16 points.
Senior center Malcolm Delpeche (Wilmington, Del.) also came alive down the stretch, scoring all nine of his points in the final 10 minutes, including a 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 55 seconds left. After Itkin and Anderson made back-to-back threes to cut the deficit to 62-59, Darling and Malcolm Delpeche's threes restored the lead to nine at 68-59, icing the win.
Limited by early foul trouble in both periods to 14 minutes of action in all, Malcolm Delpechefinished the game with nine points, nine rebounds and one blocked shot, leaving him one shy of Bates' career blocks record of 127, held by Dave Larrivee '88.
Twin brother and senior forward Marcus Delpeche (Wilmington, Del.) was a huge presence in both halves, logging 32 minutes and finishing with 13 points -- including seven straight as Bates pulled away in the second half -- to go with a season-high 15 rebounds.
Anderson made 3-of-6 threes in both halves for the Eagles. Justin Martin grabbed 21 rebounds in the game to go with eight points. Alonzo McCain passed out a game-high six assists and scored eight points, making 2-of-4 3-pointers.
Bates also had solid backcourt performances from first-year Nick Gilpin (Hampden, Maine) and sophomore Max Hummel (Glastonbury, Conn.). Gilpin tied Darling for the team assists lead with four and turned the ball over once in 29 minutes; Hummel scored 10 points with no turnovers in 18 minutes.
In a tightly contested first half, featuring good ball movement on both sides, Husson opened with a 14-6 lead, but Coyne and Marcus Delpeche combined for all 13 points in a 13-2 Bates run that gave the Bobcats their first lead at 19-16. Husson answered with a 9-3 spurt, with a pair of threes by Anderson and one by Itkin offset by a Gilpin three. In the final minute, Coyne's three combined with a pair of free throws by Hummel to give Bates a 31-27 lead at the break.
Husson started the second half similarly to the first with a 9-4 run, punctuated by Justin Smith's three from the left corner for a 36-35 lead. But Coyne answered with a three from the left wing on Bates' next possession.
Marcus Delpeche then scored seven straight points, concluding with a putback of his own miss, and junior Justin Zukowski's (Portland, Maine) jump shot with 11:38 to go capped a 12-0 run for a 47-36 Bates lead.
Anderson stemmed the bleeding with a jumper, but Darling answered 15 seconds later with his initial three, and he and Malcolm Delpeche teamed up to stave off Husson's onslaught of six 3-pointers in the final nine minutes.
Bates will next play host to Bowdoin on Wednesday at 7:30pm in the rivals' annual non-conference matchup.