LEWISTON — Desiree Smith’s offense and Colby’s defense were too much for the Bates women’s basketball team Sunday. The Bobcats, still winless while dropping to 0-4, couldn’t overcome a season-high 26 points for Smith or 18 turnovers in a 62-57 loss at Alumni Gymnasium.
The two NESCAC rivals (Sunday’s game didn’t count toward the conference standings) played even for the first six-plus minutes of the game, before the White Mules (4-0) finished the first quarter on a 7-0 run to go up 18-11. Smith, herself, had 12 points for Colby in the opening period after coming into the game averaging 9.7 over the season’s first three games.
“I think she had some success, especially early, going to the hoop and getting easy looks,” Colby head coach Julie Veilleux said of Smith, who missed all of last season with an injury. “This is definitely something I think she’s capable of.”
The shooting proficiency for each team went in opposite directions from the first quarter to the second. Colby made 8 of 14 shots in the first quarter, while the Bobcats made just three of their 13 attempts. In the second quarter, it was Bates hitting eight shots — on 75-percent shooting — while holding the Mules to just three.
The Bobcats used that hot streak to go on an 11-0 run to turn a seven-point deficit into a 29-25 lead with 39 seconds to play in the first half. The Mules knotted the game up at halftime, however, as Mia Diplock and Carylanne Wolfington each made one of two free throws and Diplock made a game-tying layup with 10 seconds left. Bates’ Bernadette Connors missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
The Mules opened the second half on a 6-0 run — with Smith making the last in a string of three Colby layups — to go up 35-29. Jackie Welch hit a jumper 1:15 into the quarter for Bates to break the drought, but the Bobcats could never break even again. A layup by Allie Coppola (team-high 15 points) drew Bates within 41-40 with less than a minute to go in the third quarter, but Smith made nailed a foul-line jumper with eight seconds left to make it 43-40 Colby after three.
The Mules continued to increase their lead in the fourth, going up by as much as nine on two occasions (51-42 and 59-50). The latter deficit came with 2:06 left on a layup by Haley Driscoll, but the Bobcats fought back over the final two minutes.
Nina Davenport drew Bates to within four (61-57) with 45 seconds to play on a 3-pointer, but Smith made a free throw for the game’s final point and the Bobcats’ last two possessions both ended on turnovers to keep Bates out of the win column.
“A tight game like that, you lose you always think about the last couple plays,” Bates head coach Alison Montgomery said. “We had a chance down the stretch and we just didn’t execute. We did hit a big 3, we forced some turnovers, so we kept ourselves in it, but just with under a minute to play we didn’t execute the way we wanted to.”
Davenport’s triple was the lone made from behind the arc for the Bobcats in the second half, as they were just 1 for 11 in that category — a stat Montgomery called “a pretty killer percentage.”
Bates was just 5 for 24 on 3s for the game, including 3 of 8 for leading-scorer Davenport. Welch and Bernadette Connors were both 1 for 6.
“Two more of those go down and we’re celebrating a win,” Montgomery said. “We got to be better shooters.”
The two late turnovers, and 18 overall, continued a concerning early-season trend for the Bobcats, who were just one off their season-low of 17.
“We can’t be our own biggest enemy,” Montgomery said. “We’ve played some teams that have really pressured us. Colby was pressing us pretty much the whole game.”
“I hope it had something to with our defense,” said Veilleux, whose team turned those 18 turnovers into 19 points.
Veilleux was happy to see her team finish off its first close game of the season. On the flip side, first-year head coach Montgomery was happy her team had a chance to win, but she’s ready for her team to finish one off itself.
“I think we’re sick of saying that now,” Montgomery said of learning from close losses. “We have kicked off the season with enough losses now.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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