LEWISTON, Maine -- Senior captain Morgan Kennedy scored a team-high 22 points and first-year Sarah Hughes played the role of closer as the Bates women's basketball team defeated Widener University by a score of 79-66 in the second round of the NCAA Division III Championship on Saturday, advancing to the Sweet 16 for the third time in program history.

The Bobcats (24-5) will face No. 7 nationally ranked Wartburg next Friday at a to-be-determined time and location. It's the first Sweet 16 appearance for Bates women's basketball since 2005.

With Bates holding on to a 51-48 lead against the Pride (24-5), sophomore Ava James (Bethesda, Md.) hit a baseline jumper to put the Bobcats up by five with 1:10 left in the third quarter. Hughes (Rumson, N.J.) sank a pair of free throws just before the end of the third, extending the lead to seven. 

Then the sensational first-year finished off the visitors with a monster fourth quarter, scoring 10 of her 18 points down the stretch. It all started when Hughes drained a three-pointer with 9:19 remaining in regulation. Then Kennedy (Oklahoma City, Okla.) quickly followed up with a three of her own, putting Bates up 61-48. Now down 13, Widener was unable to rally, cutting the lead to nine a couple times in the fourth quarter, but getting no closer.

Another Hughes three-pointer with 5:01 remaining gave the Bobcats a 67-55 lead and they stayed ahead by double digits the rest of the way.

Hughes finished 5-9 from the floor on the evening, and Kennedy drained 4-8 from long distance. Combined, they accounted for all seven of Bates' made three-pointers in the game. Hughes also tallied eight rebounds. 

Meanwhile, sophomore Elsa Daulerio (Harpswell, Maine) tallied 15 points, a game-high nine rebounds, and three blocked shots. Junior Alexandra Long (Newtown, Pa.) dished out a game-high seven assists and also blocked three shots.

For the visitors, Mia Robbins poured in a game-high 26 points on 9-18 shooting. Four players finished in double figures for Widener, with Jordan D'Ambrosio and Gianna Samuels tallying 11 points each. Lindsay Kutz finished with 10 points on 5-10 shooting.

The Bobcats made the most of their rebounding, tallying 19 second chance points to Widener's two. 

The Pride briefly led four times in the first quarter, but the Bobcats grabbed the edge for good on a pair of Kennedy free throws with 3:01 left in the opening stanza, which put Bates up 9-8. The hosts led 16-10 at the end of one.

Widener played well in the second quarter, trimming the Bates lead to 35-32 at the half. But the Bobcats closed things out over the final 20 minutes, scoring 20 points in the third quarter and 24 points in the fourth quarter.