Box Score Lewiston, Maine – The Colby College Women's Basketball team comes up just short in overtime thriller to the Bates College Bobcats in their first conference game of the season.
Bates was able to get the first bucket of the game when Melanie Binkhorst hit a jump shot 10 seconds into the first quarter. Ainsley Burns (headline photo) would counter with a three point field goal to give the Mules a 3-2 lead with 7:40 remaining. Colby's Alisha Aube (photo inset), would have the next 4 points of the game putting the Mules up 7-2 with 4:27 to go. A jump shot by the Bobcat's, Ariana Dalia, at the 3:42 mark would stall the Mules 7-0 run. Colby would close out the quarter with an 11-7 lead. The start of the second quarter was a defensive battle until Brooke Guiffre was able to hit a three point field goal with 8:34 left to put Colby up 14-7. Jenna Berens of Bates would score the next 6 of 8 points for the Bobcats to tie the game up, 16-16, with 6:23 to play. The lead changes would continue until Paige Russel hit from deep to give the Mules a 27-24 lead with 1:25 to play until halftime. Colby would take a 29-24 lead into half after a couple made free throws by Keagan Dunbar.
The Bobcat's came out in the second half on a 7-2 run to tie the game yet again with 8:24 to go in the 3rd. A few minutes later a layup from Colby's, Burns, would put the Mules up 36-33 at the 4:43 mark. The Bobcat's would go on an 8-2 run over the next few minutes to take the lead with 1:33 to go by a score of 41-39. Meghan Graff of the Bobcat's would hit a 3 with 00:01 left in the quarter to give Bates a 44-41 to go into the final quarter. The fourth quarter was more of the same back and forth action as expected. Dunbar would give Colby the lead back with 7:14 to play when she hit a 3 pointer. A 3 points field goal by Mia Roy of Bates would give the Bobcat's a 1 point lead with 4:53 to play. A 5-0 run would help Colby take the lead back with 2:18 left. Berens would tie the game up for Bates with a layup with 0:56 left. Burns and Dunbar would put Colby up by 4 with 0:11 to go but Meghan Graff of Bates would hit 2 layups in the last 10 seconds to bring the game into overtime.
Colby came out in overtime with the hot hand going up by four points after an Aube layup with 1:34 to play. Meghan Graff would hit a three for the Bobcats to tie the game back up with 30 seconds left. A late foul by Carly Christofori of Colby would give Meghan Graff a free throw with 0:01 left which she would sink to give Bates the 74-73 win.
Colby had four players score in double figures on the night. Dunbar led the Mules with 19 points. Burns added 18 and Paige Russell finished with 13. Aube was one rebound shy of a double-double ending with 16 points and 9 rebounds.
The Mules' next game will be at home on Thursday, December 5, against Saint Joseph's College of Maine. Tip off is set for 6:00 PM.
