Lewiston, Maine - Junior Nick Lynch had 16 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Bates College men's basketball team to a 65-48 win over visiting Trinity College in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) men's basketball action Friday night at Alumni Gymnasium.  Trinity falls to 15-8 overall and 4-5 in the NESCAC with its first loss in three games, while the Bobcats (are now 12-12 overall and 4-6 in the conference.  Trinity, which had beaten Bates, 80-52, in both teams' season opener way back on November 18 on a neutral court, can secure the No. 6 seed in the NESCAC Championship Tournament with a win in its regular-season finale at Tufts on Sunday at 2 p.m., but could miss the post-season with a loss to the Jumbos.  The Bobcats went on a 16-0 run in the second half to break a 39-39 tie to keep its NESCAC Tournament hopes alive.

Trinity led 10-6 with 14:40 to go in the first half, after sophomroe guard Christia Porydzy (South Glastonbury, Conn.) hit a three-pointer and then fed junior Jeremy Arthur (Westbury, N.Y.) for a layup on back-to-back possessions. Bates sophomore Tom Coyne drilled a trey with 11:43 left in the first to give the lead back to the Bobcats at 12-10 and Trinity never got it back.  Bates went on a 10-0 run to extend the lead to 24-12 on a Coyne three with 6:11 to go in the opening half of action, but Trinity first-year forward Donald Jorden, Jr. (Tampa, Fla.) scored consecutive buckets to make the score, 26-21, with 3:30 on the clock.  Bates led, 29-24, at the break.  Lynch and Trinity junior forward Connor Merinder (Andover, Mass.) each had seven points at halftime.

Trinity chipped away in the second half and tied it at 39-all on a layup by sophomore Nick Seretta (Greenfield, Mass.), but Lynch converted an old fashioned three-point play to put the Bobcats up 42-39 and Bates rookie James Mortimer drilled a three to put Bates up 11 at the 5:20 mark.  Jorden ended a 16-0 Bobcat run with 3:07 to go, but the Bantams could not get back into it. Jorden finished with a team-high 10 points to go along with six rebounds, while Trinity senior co-captain Eric Gendron (Merrimack, N.H.) notched eight points, a team-high eight rebounds and a game-high five assists. 

Trinity and Bowdoin, which hosts Wesleyan tomorrow, are currently tied for seventh place in the conference standings with 4-5 league records and Bates is a half-game out at 4-6.  Trinity owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over Bowdoin, but if the teams finish in a three-way tie then the two teams with the best record against the top-four teams in the standings would qualify for the eight-team tournament.  The Bantams had a six-game winning streak against the Bobcats come to an end.