LEWISTON, Maine -- Senior Christine McCall (Lowell, Mass.) scored a career-high 16 points to go with eight rebounds, and sophomore Allie Beaulieu (Swampscott, Mass.) added 14 points, five assists and a career-high nine rebounds, to lead the Bates College women's basketball team to a 72-58 NESCAC victory over Middlebury College on Saturday.
The Bobcats (12-4, 1-1 NESCAC) earned their first conference win, while the Panthers dropped to 9-3 overall and 0-2 in the NESCAC.
Lauren Sanchez led the Panthers with 13 points and six assists to go with seve rebounds. Stephanie Surrette grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds while Maddie Moreau and Katie Pett scored 11 points apiece.
Bates maintained a small lead throughout most of the first half, peaking at 27-19 with 6:19 to go on a three by Beaulieu, then again at 29-21 on a layup by senior Jessie Igoe (Lexington, Mass.), who finished with 11 points, six rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Middlebury cut it to three (33-30) on a free throw by Sanchez with 1:24 left, and a layup in the final seconds by first-year Meredith Kelly (Cohasset, Mass.) made it 35-30 Bates at the half.
Sanchez opened the second half with a pair of free throws to close it to 35-32, but Bates scored eight unanswered points from there to assume a 43-32 edge with 16:17 left. Back-to-back threes by Moreau helped cut the deficit to 47-42 with 13:52 to go, and a three by Tracy Borsinger clsoed the gap to 50-46 with 10:53 left.
Bates then went on a 14-3 run, with points scored by six different Bobcats, to take a commanding 64-49 lead with 6:40 left, and Middlebury couldn't get the lead under 13 points the rest of the way.
The Bobcats play a non-conference game at St. Joseph's College of Maine on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.