LEWISTON, Maine -- The Bates women's basketball team has its most wins at home since the 2005-06 season after a 54-50 victory over Trinity Saturday afternoon at Alumni Gymnasium. 

With the win, the Bobcats (12-10, 3-5 NESCAC) improve their home record to 9-2 with two regular season games remaining. Their only two losses at Alumni Gym so far this season are to No. 1 nationally ranked Tufts and No. 3 Bowdoin.

On Saturday, sophomore Meghan Graff (South Portland, Maine) led the way for Bates with a game-high 22 points, including clutch buckets down the stretch to clinch the victory. Graff also dished out a game-high five assists. Sophomore Mia Roy (Bedford, N.H.) added 11 points and junior Taylor McVeigh (Hanson, Mass.) pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.

Madison Stevens paced the Bantams (15-7, 4-4 NESCAC) with 12 points and Elizabeth Althoff added 10 points and nine rebounds. Bailey Hyland tallied nine points off the bench to go along with nine rebounds of her own. The Bobcats held Trinity's leading scorer Peace Kabari to just four points on 2-12 shooting.

The Bobcats led by two points with less than a minute remaining. Graff drove aggressively to the hoop and made a beautiful underhand layup in traffic from the left block with 41 seconds on the clock, putting Bates up 52-48. Bria Fuller made a layup of her own on the other end and Trinity had a chance to tie or take the lead after the Bobcats turned the ball over with 16 seconds left.

McVeigh locked down Althoff on defense, who missed a layup attempt, and sophomore Ariana Dalia (Brick, N.J.) pulled down a big rebound. The Bantams tied her up but the possession arrow favored Bates. The Bobcats called timeout and advanced the ball. Then Trinity fouled Graff with eight seconds remaining and Graff hit both free throws to clinch the win.

The game featured seven ties and four lead changes, with neither team leading by more than seven points. 

Bates held Trinity to just 29% shooting from the floor and the Bantams failed to hit a three-pointer in eight attempts. The Bobcats shot 37.3% from the floor and hit 2-15 from deep.

The first two quarters were both decided by a single point, with Bates taking a 24-22 lead into halftime. 

After neither team hit from deep in the first half, Graff drilled a three-pointer to open the scoring in the third quarter and followed that up with a layup on an assist from Roy.

Bates held a seven-point lead for most of the third quarter until Stevens split a pair of free throws with 15 seconds left, cutting the Bobcat edge to six entering the final 10 minutes of action.

The Bantams opened the fourth quarter on a 6-0 run, tying the game at 39 with 7:50 to go on a free throw from Althoff.

But a Dalia layup with 7:19 left put the Bobcats ahead for good and Bates went back up by seven after Roy drilled a three with 4:34 left. 

Later on, senior captain Melanie Binkhorst (West Hartford, Conn.) made the score 50-43 in favor of Bates with a spectacular reverse layup. Kabari made a layup of her own with 2:12 remaining and the Bantams got a couple stops, inching closer and closer via success at the free throw line. Trinity made 14-19 from the line compared to 8-9 for Bates. 

Trinity never caught the Bobcats though, with Graff making sure of that down the stretch.

Bates hosts Williams Friday at 7pm followed by Middlebury Saturday at 3pm to conclude the 2019-20 regular season, with NESCAC tournament positioning on the line.