College Basketball: Bobcats sweep Huskies

The hot start turned out to be the worst thing that could have happened to the Huskies, while the Bobcats slowly awakened to the fact that they could attack the zone and find the openings they needed with better ball movement.

The result was a balanced scoring attack that saw four Bates starters reach double figures in a 75-60 win at Alumni Gym.

Bates’ men completed the sweep thanks to a dominating performance by the Delpeche twins, seniors Marcus and Malcolm, in a 81-71 victory.

The Bates women rallied from a 29-19 deficit, going on a 10-0 run in the third quarter to build a 10-point lead of their own before eventually pulling away.

Bates’ Allie Coppola led all scorers with 17 points and 12 rebounds but had plenty of support from Lyse Henshaw (16 points), Emily Freedland (15 points) and Nina Davenport (14 points, 11 rebounds). Bernadette Connors, the Bobcats’ fifth starter, added nine points and 10 assists as Bates (1-1) dished out 22 assists on its 29 baskets.

“We were relying way too much on shooting 3s, which is what they wanted us to do and why they were zoning us,” Bates coach Alison Montgomery said. “We had a couple of possessions at the end of the first half where we finally were realizing what was working offensively, and they got some momentum from it. We talked about it at halftime and I think they understood they could get much higher-percentage shots if they just moved the ball.”

“This year’ we’ve been focusing more on driving more and taking better shots,” Freedland said. “I think once she told us that it’s always been working when we were driving, we knew what to do.”

Chantel Eells, a freshman from Turner, led the Huskies (1-3) with 12 points and six rebounds while Farmington’s Miranda Nicely added 12 points, five rebounds and three steals off the bench.

USM made five of six 3-point shots in the first quarter, two of which were bank shots, to open a 22-14 lead.

Nicely widened the margin to 10 at 29-19 with a 3-pointer with six minutes left in the first half, but that would be the last 3-pointer the Huskies would make until the end of the third quarter.

“We talked about not letting (the 10-point deficit) be an emotional downer,” Montgomery said. “We’re trying to have an identity this year of being more of a pressure defense team. We have a couple of kids who are quick on the perimeter and can put pressure on the ball-handler, so we talked about doing that and making entry passes tough.”

Bates chipped away for the rest of the half by getting the ball inside and getting to the free throw line. Coppola made three shots in the paint and set up Connors for a short jumper with a nice touch pass and the Bobcats closed to within 35-32 at halftime.

“At the end of the first half we were saying we wish the first half could continue for just a few more minutes because we had the momentum,” Freedland said. “I think we came out in the second half and continued it.”

Freedland, who had four steals, helped spark the Bobcats with excellent perimeter defense in the third quarter. Freedland and Henshaw scored back-to-back fast break layups after forcing turnovers to break the game’s last tie and kick off a 17-4 run.

Bates led 58-48 aft the end of three. USM briefly got back to single digits early in the fourth quarter but Bates, which shot 56 percent from the floor in the second half, pushed the lead back above 10 for the final time midway through the quarter.

“We just struggled to make shots,” USM coach Samantha Allen said. “We talked to the girls about how we needed to have our momentum carry us towards the rim as opposed to out towards the baseline or fading away from shots. We tended to take a lot more long jumpers than actually get ourselves to the rim. (The hot start) definitely encouraged that.”

Delpeche mode

The size and athleticism advantage Marcus and Malcolm Delpeche gave Bates over USM was apparent on the floor, but not on the halftime stat sheet, much to Bobcats coach Jon Furbush’s dismay.

“I read their stat line at halftime and I said ‘You are out of your mind if you don’t throw it inside the first 10 possessions,'” Furbush said. “And we did not. So we’ve got some work to do on the film. But they totally dominated and did what they had to do to get us the win.”

Marcus Delpeche tallied game highs with 29 points and 12 rebounds. Malcolm added 19 points, 11 rebounds and blocked a school record seven shots.

The twins, who are from Wilmington, Del. and stand 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-8, respectively, combined to shoot 19-for-22 from the floor. As a team, the Bobcats shot 50 percent from the floor in each half.

“Starting off, we were looking to get the ball to Marcus as much as possible,” Malcolm Delpeche said. “As our offense developed, we found more ways to exploit both myself and my brother’s matchups. We really emphasized the four and five positions and crashing the boards as much as possible.”

Sparked by a Max Hummel 3-pointer, the Bobcats went on an 11-0 run to turn a 24-23 deficit into a 34-24 lead that they would never relinquish. Edward Little alum Quin Leary (six points, three rebounds off the bench) hit a 3-pointer from the left corner to beat the buzzer and give the Bobcats a 41-30 cushion at halftime.

“Our coach told us at halftime that we’ve just got to talk more and work on transition defense because a lot of their points weren’t in the halfcourt, they were off poor offense developing into transition buckets,” Malcolm Delpeche said. “We just tried to cut that out and then our halfcourt defense came into play after that.”

Malcolm Delpeche beat the shot clock buzzer with a jump hook to set off an 11-2 Bates run in the third quarter. Malcolm found his brother through the back door on a baseline cut for a layup that made it 49-36.

Justin Zukowski converted a long offensive rebound into a 3-pointer and Marcus Delpeche followed with a thunderous dunk to make it 54-38 Bates.

The Bobcats led by as much as 19 in the second half. The Huskies didn’t whittle it down to single digits until it was too late.

Zach Leal led the Huskies (2-2) with 22 points. Jacob Littlefield of Mechanic Falls added six points while Omar Haji-Hersi of Auburn added two points.