By Kalle Oakes,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – The good-natured ribbing from a venerable Bates fan seated two rows behind the Tufts bench started early Saturday, but coach Bob Sheldon kept smiling.

Maybe he suspected the unspoken answers would come to light in a 78-73 Jumbos men’s basketball victory at Alumni Gymnasium, one that broke a tie between the two NESCAC rivals for second place in league play.

Hey, coach, you got any other people on that team besides 33?

That Carolina-blue jersey belonged to Reggie Stovell, a do-everything, 6-foot-5 senior forward from Washington, D.C. Stovell scored the 1,000th point of his career early in the game on his way to a quiet 23 points and 14 rebounds, if there is such a thing.

“He’s a man. You know, he needed 12 for 1,000. Obviously he just wanted to get that out of the way,” Sheldon said, almost providing his own drum roll.

Stovell’s early explosion merely triggered more rhetorical bleacher queries. So, coach, what are you gonna do next year?

With comic timing, freshman Ryan O’Keefe and sophomore David Shepherd combined for five 3-pointers in the second half. That, after Tufts (13-8, 6-1 NESCAC) rattled the rim at a wispy 1-for-11 clip beyond the arc prior to intermission.

O’Keefe finished with 20 points. Shepherd added 11. Jake Weitzen, a 6-3, 270-pound freshman forward, nailed two weighty free throws with 18.8 seconds remaining to extinguish a furious Bates comeback.

Bates wasted an early 14-point lead. The Jumbos enjoyed the same cushion with 7:44 left before the Bobcats (16-6, 5-2) crept as close as three.

“I thought we played great the last 10 minutes and put ourselves in a position to win,” said Bates coach Joe Reilly. “When you get outrebounded like we did (41-32) and go 7-for-22 from 3,’ that’s not going to get it done.”

The Bobcats took a hit when 6-5 swingman Rob Stockwell retreated to the bench with his fourth foul with 17:34 remaining. Bates already trailed by one, 44-43.

Shepherd’s first 3-pointer put Tufts in front to stay. More importantly, it ignited a 16-1 run that ended in a Stovell slash for two and a 63-49 advantage.

“We needed a coin flip to win the eighth and final NESCAC tournament spot last year,” Sheldon said, “and we lost four starters. We put a freshman, O’Keefe, on Zak Ray. He had 15 points, but he had to work at it a little bit.”

Ray, the Bobcats’ sophomore point guard, scored 10 of those in the final six minutes. Stockwell (14 points) returned to knock down a pair of important treys. And Victor Rivera (11) cashed in a feed from Ray to bring Bates within three, 69-66, with 2:55 left.

O’Keefe and Ray exchanged treys before Stovell turned it into a free throw contest by nailing a 10-footer for a five-point lead.

“When your leading scorer and rebounder (Stockwell) picks up his fourth foul with 18 minutes left,” Reilly said, “it’s a difficult situation.”

Elliott Linsley added 12 points and Jon Furbush chalked up 10 with a team-high seven rebounds for the Bobcats. Maranacook product Brian Gerrity was held to nine on 4-for-13 shooting.

Bates finishes its regular season at home next weekend against Amherst and Trinity and should host a NESCAC quarterfinal after that as the second, third or fourth seed.