LEWISTON, Maine -- The Bates men's basketball team made 12 3-pointers in the first half to build a 49-21 lead at the break, and went on to coast to an 89-63 non-conference victory over Saint Joseph's College Thursday night in Alumni Gymnasium.
Jerome Darling and Josh Britten combined to make 10 threes in the game, and both scored career highs. Darling finished with a game-high 17 points, including 5-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc, with five assists and five rebounds. Britten also made 5-of-8 from three to score 15. Marcus Delpeche pitched in 10 points and Quin Leary contributed eight points and three assists.
Bates (4-2) shot 16-for-29 from beyond the arc in the game, coming one 3-pointer shy of the team's single-game record. The Bobcats shot 57.6 percent from the floor in all, a season high, and had assists on a season-best 24 of 34 makes from the field.
Malcolm Delpeche had a game-high seven rebounds, helping Bates to a 39-30 advantage on the glass.
John Crawley led St. Joe's (3-6) with 15 points, while Ben Malloy came off the bench for 12 points. Freshman guard Ian Mileikis of Auburn, Maine, posted eight points with six rebounds and four assists.
A Crawley layup gave St. Joe's its last lead of the game at 5-4 with 16:53 to go in the opening half. Britten responded with his second three in a row, and Malcolm Delpeche's steal and breakaway dunk made it 11-5. The Bobcats turned it into a 13-1 run with back-to-back threes made by Darling and Leary for a 17-6 lead.
After Marcus Delpeche answered Andrew Ruffen's 3-pointer with a layup followed by a dunk, another Crawley layup closed the gap to 10 for the last time at 21-11. Darling, Justin Zukowski and Leary then piled on three consecutive 3-pointers to open up a 30-11 lead less than nine minutes into the game.
The 3-pointer party wasn't over for the Bobcats, as both Darling and Britten drained two more apiece before intermission for a monumental 28-point lead at the break that the Monks couldn't recover from. Bates' lead ballooned to as many as 35, at 67-32 with 12:54 left.
The Bobcats were able to empty their lengthy bench in the final 10 minutes of the game, with 17 players seeing at minimum of three minutes of action. Freshman forwards Ethan Winglass, Max Hummel and Nick Lynch combined to score 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting down the stretch.
Bates plays a non-conference game at Colby on Saturday at 7pm. St. Joe's will next play a non-conference game Dec. 30 at Bowdoin.
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 474-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
