DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Junior Nick Lynch tallied a double-double and three other Bobcats scored in double figures to lead the Bates men's basketball team to an 86-80 victory over Alma College Thursday night on the final day of the Daytona Beach Shootout.
Lynch (Westford, Mass.) not only tallied a career-high 18 points on Thursday, he also pulled down a career-high 13 rebounds to lead the Bobcats (6-3) to victory. He shot 7-14 from the floor and blocked a pair of shots as well.
Meanwhile, first-year James Mortimer (Sudbury, Mass.) turned in the best performance of his young career with 15 points, six assists and two rebounds off the bench. Mortimer shot 5-7 from the floor and drained four of five shots from three-point range.
The Bobcats shot 41.2% (14-34) from three and made 20 of 25 free throws. The 14 made three-pointers is a season-high for the team. On defense, Bates forced 16 turnovers and only turned the ball over eight times on the other end.
Sophomore Tom Coyne (Falmouth, Maine) scored 16 points and dished out five assists to go along with three rebounds and a pair of steals. Junior Max Hummel (Glastonbury, Conn.) added 14 points, nine rebounds, two assists and a steal off the bench.
Coyne's three-pointer with 12:48 to go in the game put the Bobcats ahead for good. The three made the score 45-44 in favor of Bates. Mortimer followed with a three of his own to extend the lead to 48-44. Then Hummel hit a three and Lynch made back-to-back layups. The second layup ended up being an old fashioned three-point play, capping off a 14-0 run that turned a one-point deficit into a 56-44 lead with 10:26 remaining in the game.
The Scots (3-6) cut the Bobcat lead to four with 4:56 remaining on a Kevin Scheibert layup. He had a chance to convert a three-point play but missed the free throw. Then Hummel drilled a three to put Bates back up by seven. After that, the Scots never got to within closer than six points of the Bobcats.
In the first half, Alma got off to a hot start, taking a 16-6 lead on a Kevin Gamble three-pointer. Bates called timeout with 13:31 left in the half. Out of the timeout, Lynch made back-to-back jumpers to trim the deficit to six. A few minutes later, the Bobcats look the lead with an 8-0 run that featured another Lynch jumper and back-to-back Mortimer threes.
Bates led 35-31 at halftime.
Alma grabbed a couple of brief leads early in the second half but big shots from Mortimer and Coyne ensured that Bates would not trail again.
Ryan Stevens led Alma with a season-high 20 points and made all eight of his shots from the free-throw line. Luke Lamoreaux also scored a season-high 12 points, making four of his six shots and both of his free throws.
Doug Bradfield and Gamble were also in double-figures for the Scots, scoring 11 and 10 points, respectively. Bradfield tallied four blocks, while Scheibert pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds.
The Bobcats return home to host Babson on Friday, December 29 at 1:00 p.m.