LEWISTON – The Bates College men’s basketball team outscored University of Maine at Farmington 38-18 in the second half for a 62-44 non-conference victory Tuesday night at Alumni Gymnasium.
After going into halftime with a 26-24 deficit, the Bobcats (10-8) held the Beavers (6-9) to 25.8 percent shooting in the second half and hit 60 percent (18-30) of their own shots to put the game away.
Brian Ellis scored 21 points, while Chris Wilson added 13 points and 6 assists and Nick Schmiemann notched 10 points with a career-high 8 rebounds for Bates. Ellis (9-14) and Wilson (6-8) combined to shoot 15-for-22 from the field (.681).
Josh Tanguay scored 13 points with a game-high 9 rebounds for Farmington, while Eric Taylor added 13 points and 5 rebounds off the bench.
Neither team played sharply in the first half, each shooting under 38 percent from the field in the period. A layup by Ben Thayer gave Bates an early 8-4 lead, but Farmington outscored Bates 9-1 over a five-minute span to take a 13-9 lead, as a three by Eric Lelansky was followed by two straight fast-break layups by Taylor. But Schmiemann found Sean Wirth underneath for a layup, then hit a pair of free throws to retie the game at 13, and a pair of hoops by Ellis gave Bates a four-point edge again, capping an 8-0 run.
Taylor converted another layup before the clock expired on the period for a 26-24 halftime lead for the Beavers.
Bates started the second half with increased intensity and immediately went on a 15-2 run in the first 4:24 of the period for a 39-28 lead with 15:24 left to play. Wilson started the run with a jumper, and the junior co-captain contributed 8 points, while Alex Gallant added 2 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and a block, and Scott Place added 2 points and 2 assists to help fuel the run.
Bates extended the lead to 20 (56-36) over the next eight minutes, with Schmiemann scoring 6 points and grabbing 4 rebounds over that span, and the Bobcats were able to coast to the victory over the remainder of the game.
Bates first-year Kyle Philbrook (Auburn, Maine) had 4 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists in one of his most productive outings this season.
Farmington will play at Green Mountain College on Friday at 8 p.m.
