Box Score
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Freshman Tom Palleschi led the Jumbos with 19 points and eight rebounds
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LEWISTON, ME - Freshman Tom Palleschi (Haverhill, MA) totaled 19 points, eight rebounds, and three blocked shots to lead Tufts University to a 74-67 win over the Bates College men's basketball team on Saturday in NESCAC action at Alumni Gymnasium.
It was Tufts' (12-7, 5-2 NESCAC) sixth straight win, with five of those coming against NESCAC opponents.
Bates (7-12, 2-5 NESCAC) led by as many as 15 points in the first half and finished the period with a 40-33 advantage. Tufts outscored Bates 41-27 in the second half, finally breaking the game's seventh and final tie with a three-pointer by Kwame Firempong (Inglewood, CA) with 3:00 to go in the game. The lead changed five times over the second half.
Bates couldn't answer Firempong's three before Ben Ferris (Essex Junction, VT) converted a three-point play with 1:31 left, making it 70-64, Tufts' largest lead of the game to that point. Bates' Mark Brust and Tufts' Ferris traded layups to keep the gap at six, and a pair of free throws by Firempong with 23 seconds left to play sealed Tufts' win.
Ferris and Scott Anderson (Sudbury, MA) scored 15 points apiece for Tufts. Firempong added 11 with five assists, and Stephen Haladyna (Hamilton, MA) scored 10 points off the bench. Oliver Cohen (Penn Valley, PA) went scoreless, but dished out eight assists. Tufts shot 50 percent (26/52) from the field for the game, including 43.8 percent from long range (7/16). The Jumbos also made 88.2 percent of their free throws (15/17).
Bates senior Ed Bogdanovich scored a game-high 21 points, his highest output since Bates' season opener in November, and he hauled down seven rebounds, as Bates achieved a slight 34-33 edge on the glass. Mike Boornazian had 15 points and six rebounds, while Graham Safford and Mark Brust added 11 points apiece. Safford also distributed a team-high six assists and added two steals and a block. Bates committed only five turnovers in the game. The Bobcats' Achilles' heel was their three-point shooting. They were 2 for 18 from long distance (11.1 percent), 23 for 43 on two-pointers (53.5 percent).
Safford assisted Bogdanovich for layups on three straight early possessions, including a fast-break dunk and a three-point play that made it 13-8 in Bates' favor. The Bobcats turned an 18-13 lead into 28-13 with a 10-0 run, capped by a four-point play by Boornazian with 10:03 left in the half. Anderson ended Bates' streak with a three of his own, and the Bobcats never led by as many again. Tufts outscored Bates 20-12 over the final 10 minutes of the half to whittle the lead down to 40-33 at the break. Firempong nailed two threes in that span, and Ferris closed out the period's scoring with another three with 1:13 to go.
Tufts' shooting continued its warming trend as the second half got under way with a pair of layups by Palleschi, and 5:26 into the period the game was knotted up at 45-45, after Ferris and Anderson had each made pairs of free throws. Palleschi scored 13 of his points in the second period.
Bates will host Husson on Tuesday at 7pm in a non-conference matchup. Tufts plays at UMass-Dartmouth on Tuesday at 7pm.
Game Box Score
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Game recap courtesy of Bates College
