With a victory over Colby in their season finale next Saturday, Bowdoin will clinch the fourth seed in the conference tournament and a first-round home game. Bates falls to 15-6 overall and 4-3 in NESCAC play.
The two teams traded hoops in the first half before a rowdy Morrell Gymnasium crowd. With the contest tied at 16 apiece at 10:36, a three-pointer by T.J. McLeod gave Bowdoin a 19-16 lead. Bates tied it just moments later on a three-pointer by Brian Gerrity and the Bobcats entered halftime with a two-point lead.
Gerrity and McLeod would be the two go-to players for the squads on the day. Gerrity, a junior from Augusta, connected on 5-of-9 three-point bombs for the day in scoring 21 points for Bates, while McLeod, Bowdoin's senior co-captain from Gorham totalled a game-high 23 points including a trio of trifectas.
Bowdoin tied the game right out of the gate in the second half on a jumper by Kyle Petrie, but Bates managed to slowly pull awayas back-to-back three-pointers by Jon Furbush and Brian Gerrity extended the Bobcat lead to five points, 41-36 with 15 minutes remaining. Bowdoin would close to three points on a jumper by McLeod at 7:44, but Bates answered with a quick run keyed by another Gerrity three, a jump shot from Matt Chumodel and a layup by Rob Stockwell to take a 55-47 edge with 5:56 left in the contest.
Bowdoin would not allow Bates to score again, and began the decisive run on a spinning jumper from Mark Yakavonis. After a forcing a Bobcat turnover, McLeod hit a jumper to close it to 55-51. An offensive foul by Bates led to a good jumper from the elbow from Jon Farmer and after Farmer forced a turnover, Kevin Bradley went the length of the court for a layup-and-foul to deadlock the game. The ensuing free-throw gave the Polar Bears a 56-55 lead with exactly two minutes on the clock.
Bradley forced a Bates turnover on the next posession and missed a three-pointer, but Yakavonis grabbed an offensive board for Bowdoin and found McLeod wide open in the corner for a three-pointer and a 59-55 Polar Bear lead with 46 seconds left. The Polar Bears would hit three-of-four foul shots down the stretch to seal the win.
Ramon Garcia joined Gerrity in double-digits for the Bobcats, scoring 11 points, while Bradley finished with 17 points for Bowdoin. The Polar Bears grabbed 13 offensive boards and forced 15 Bobcat turnovers while committing only eight turnovers for the game.