Jan. 11, 2005

LEWISTON, Maine (Jan. 11, 2005) - The Endicott College men's basketball team reached .500 this night, beating Bates College, 68-65, at Alumni Gymnasium.

Endicott led the whole game until Bates tied the game, 65-65, with 59 seconds remaining on a Rob Stockwell '07 (Temple, N.H) transition layup.

He stole the ball near half court and hit the layup on a give-and-go play with Zak Ray '07 (Bangor, Maine). Stockwell's steal came after Brian Gerrity '05 (Augusta, Maine) drained a fall-away jumper from the right wing. Fouled on the play, Gerrity hit the free throw to pull the Bobcats within two, 65-63.

Answering Stockwell's score, Josh Oxton '05 (Center Harbor, N.H.) pulled up for 13-footer with 27 seconds remaining to give Endicott a 67-65 lead.

Bates' Jon Furbush '05 (South Portland, Maine) had a chance to take back the lead, but his 3-point attempt from the left baseline hit off the back rim with :09 on the clock.

Endicott's Nemanja Marinkovic '07 (Belgrade, Serbia) grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He connected on the front end of a one-and-one with four ticks remaining, but Ray's desperation 3-pointer from the right corner fell short as time expired.

Oxton scored a game-high 28 points with five rebounds for the Gulls, while Marinkovic scored 21 with seven assists. Sam Evans '07 (Philadelphia, Pa.) collected a game-high 10 boards.

Stockwell and Furbush each scored a team-high 18 points for the Bobcats; Stockwell had seven rebounds to Furbush's five. Gerrity finished with 13 points; Ray had six assists.

Endicott (4-4) will play at Eastern Connecticut on Jan. 13; tip-off is 6 p.m. Set to begin conference play, Bates (9-4) will host Bowdoin (7 p.m.) and Colby (3 p.m.) on Friday and Saturday.

Portions of this story courtesy of Bates Sports information.