LEWISTON, Maine -- Senior captain Meghan Graff scored a team-high 22 points and the Bates women's basketball team defeated No. 12 nationally ranked Trinity 61-53 Friday night at Alumni Gym. 

It's a statement win for the defending conference champion Bobcats (12-10, 4-5 NESCAC), who are fighting for momentum and tournament seeding heading into the NESCAC Championships, which are right around the corner. Bates closes out the regular season conference schedule Saturday against Wesleyan. Bates will celebrate Senior Day and tip-off is set for 3pm. 

The Bantams (20-3, 7-2 NESCAC) got a monster performance from their star forward Reilly Campbell, who scored a career-high 31 points on 13-23 shooting and grabbed a career-high 21 rebounds. But no one else on Trinity tallied more than six points, as Bates held strong down the stretch. 

The Bobcats found themselves down 18-13 at the end of the first quarter and the Bantams went up by eight on Campbell layup with 7:40 remaining until halftime. But Bates answered with a game-changing 10-0 run, sparked by two buckets apiece by Graff (South Portland, Maine) and sophomore Alexandra Long (Newtown, Pa.), who finished the night with 10 points, as the Bobcats went up by a count of 27-25 with 3:26 left in the second quarter.

They never trailed again. 

Bates led 31-28 at halftime. But the Bantams cut the lead to one with 3:37 left in the third quarter on a Theresa Twardosky three-pointer. Twardosky was the only player on the court Friday who made a three-pointer, finishing 2-5 from long range. Trinity was 2-12 as a team and Bates was 0-8 from three-point land. It's the second time since 2010 the Bobcats have won a game without making a three-pointer.

The Bobcats protected the lead down the stretch in the third quarter thanks to Graff, who scored 11 of her 22 points in the stanza to pace Bates. She scored the final eight points of the quarter for the Bobcats, including a jumper at the horn to put Bates up 48-43 at the end of three. 

Three different players scored to begin the fourth quarter and the Bobcats took their largest lead of the game at 54-43 on a Graff layup with 7:27 remaining. First-year Elsa Daulerio (Harpswell, Maine) recorded a layup with 6:48 left in the fourth, and Bates led 56-45.

But it got a little nerve-wracking for the enthusiastic Bates crowd, as the Bobcats did not tally a field goal for the rest of the game. Trinity chipped away at the deficit, and trimmed the Bates advantage to 56-51 on a Bria Fuller layup with 2:19 left. 

Trinity had a chance to cut the Bates lead to three with 59 seconds left, but junior Morgan Kennedy (Oklahoma City, Okla.) smothered Fuller's shot on the baseline, keeping it a two-possession game. 

Long hit a pair of huge free throws with 50 seconds left, putting Bates back up by seven. Campbell made two of her own on the other end, but Daulerio was able to split a pair for Bates, and Emma Wax missed a three on the other end, eliminating any chance of last second heroics for the visitors. Then Daulerio sank two free throws for the final margin of victory. 

The 61 points tallied by Bates is the most allowed by Trinity in a NESCAC game this season, by a margin of 10, as the Bobcats lived up to their status as the top-scoring team in the conference. 

Senior Jenna Berens (Durham, Conn.) had a huge first half for Bates, hitting all of her shot attempts, good for eight points. Kennedy finished with eight points and six rebounds, while Daulerio added seven points and a team-high eight rebounds. Graff had four assists and six rebounds to go along with her 22 points. 

Despite Campbell grabbing 21 boards, the Bobcats won the rebounding battle, 46-41, and tallied 16 second chance points to Trinity's six. 

Friday's win is the first for the Bobcats over a ranked team this season, and it's the second straight time they've defeated the Bantams. Bates beat top-seeded Trinity 57-55 in the NESCAC semifinals last February.