BANGOR – Sure, Friday night’s men’s basketball game at Newman Gym could be statistically boiled down to two factors, but what it really came down to was one 41/2-minute span.

Bates College of Lewiston used a 13-1 run early in the second half to take control of a tight game and go on to an 86-77 victory over Husson College.

As crucial as the scoring run was, Bates’ fourth straight victory, which improved the Bobcats’ record to 4-3, came down to rebounding and defense.

“We’ve seen them before and know their guards crash the boards hard, so we tried to have everyone go to the boards hard as well,” said Bates sophomore guard Chris Wilson of Brewer. “I think it helped us a lot because we like to run and a lot of our transition points came from rebounding and getting the ball out quick.”

Wilson helped lead a balanced scoring attack for Bates with 21 points to go with five assists, three steals and four rebounds.

Bates outrebounded the 3-2 Eagles 36-21 overall. Freshman guard-forward Brian Ellis led the Bobcats with 11 rebounds to go with his 12 points.

Guard Bryan Wholey (24 points, nine rebounds, five assists) credited a group rebounding effort.

“I try to crash the boards as much as possible,” Wholey said. “Coach is always on me about that, but I think today everybody was on the boards and that made the difference.”

Another difference-maker was Bates’ defensive effort against Husson’s perimeter shooters.

“We forced the issue a couple times and got away from what we wanted to do,” said Husson coach Warren Caruso. “We’re going to take our share of 3’s, but they did a very good job of taking away our penetration to set up 3’s.”

The Eagles still took 20 3-point shots and hit 12 (40 percent), but they weren’t taking the shots when they wanted to so much as when they had to.

“Our focus was to stay on the wings and not let them drive and kick,” Wholey said.

Sophomore guard Brock Bradford of Kenduskeag led the Eagles with 26 points and seven assists – both game-highs – despite being the prime target of Bates’ tight, man-to-man defense.

Sheraud Lee scored 20 for Husson.

The Bobcats’ key run came on the strength of their transition game and involved six different scorers. Ten points came from the paint.

“This was a pretty good game for the fans – maybe not so much for us, but both teams played well,” Caruso said. “It basically came down to that stretch, and they made more plays than we did.”

They also shot better. The Bobcats followed up a 48 percent shooting effort from the field in the first half with a scalding 62.1 effort in the second to finish at 55.6 overall. They even managed to beat Husson at its own game by shooting 47.1 percent from 3-point range. Neither team turned the ball over much. Husson had 11 and Bates six.

Senior guard Pat Halloran helped pace Bates with 14 points.

Eagles junior guard Fabian Figueroa did not play due to an undisclosed injury. Caruso said he “will probably miss five games at this point.”

Andrew Neff may be reached at 990-8205 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net

BOBCATS 86, HUSSON 77

Bates (4-3) Husson (3-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Wilson 6 14 8 8 21 Meehan 1 3 2

Wholey 9 11 2 6 24 Bradford 8 20 5 7 26

Ellis 4 5 3 6 12 Kissinger 1 6

Halloran 5 11 2 4 14 MacKnzie 3 8

O’Keefe 4 5 0 0 8 Lee 8 15 20

Curley 0 1 0 0 0 Perras 3 8 8

Place 0 1 0 0 0 Kane 0 1 0

Hatch 0 1 0 0 0 Coffin 2 3 5

Gallant 0 0 2 2 2 Henry 1 3 2

Thayer 2 3 0 0 4

Wirth 0 2 1 2 1

Totals 30 54 18 28 86 Totals 27 64 11 14 77

Bates 38 86

Husson 40 77

3-pt. goals – Bates (8-17): Wholey 4-4, Halloran 2-7, Ellis 1-1, Wilson 1-3, Place 0-1, Hatch 0-1; Husson (12-30): Bradford 5-13, Lee 4-8, Perras 2-6, Coffin 1-1, Kissinger 0-2

Attendance: