LEWISTON, Maine—Junior Nate Amado (Hanson, Mass.) scored a game-high 22 points and graduate student Steph Baxter (Worcester, Mass.) finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and seven assists to help visiting Babson College defeat Bates College, 77-53, in non-conference men's basketball action on Sunday afternoon inside Alumni Gym. 

With its third straight win, Babson improves to 4-2 on the year. Bates drops to 1-5 overall with the loss. 

Junior Aidan Horan (Orchard Park, N.Y.) finished with eight points, six rebounds and three steals and sophomore Tyler Lauder (Malvern, Pa.) added six points and five boards for the Beavers, who had eight different players contribute at least four points in the victory. 

First-year Babacar Pouye (Carpinteria, Calif.) scored 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting and added nine rebounds and two block shots to pace the Bobcats. 

Sophomore Elliott Cravitz (Denver, Colo.) and junior Grant Nadeau (Gorham, Maine) hit three-pointers to help Bates jump out to a 7-1 lead less than four minutes into the contest before the Green and White responded with an 18-6 spurt that included five points apiece from Baxter and sophomore Timmy O'Toole (Milton, Mass.). The Bobcats cut their deficit to 19-15 on a hoop by Cravitz at the 9:06 mark before the Beavers outscored the hosts 23-7 over the final 6:55 of the stanza to build a 20-point halftime advantage. 

Amado sandwiched a pair of buckets around a triple by Baxter to push the margin to 26-15 and Baxter followed a layup by sophomore Mark Woolhouse (Lebanon, N.J.) with five straight points to make it 33-17 with 3:32 to go until halftime. Amado and Baxter combined for 21 of the 23 points during the run as Babson went into the locker room leading 42-22. 

The Green and White scored on its first four possessions of the second half to stretch its advantage to 51-22 on a layup by Lauder with 17:27 remaining. Sophomore Jeremiah Paul (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Amado drilled back-to-back three-pointers and Amado converted a feed from O'Toole following a steal to give Babson its largest lead of the game at 61-27 with 14:52 to play. 

The Beavers shot 41.3 percent for the game and turned 16 Bates' turnovers into 23 points. They also outscored the hosts 32-28 in the paint and finished with a slim 48-46 edge on the glass. 

The Bobcats shot a season-low 28.8 percent from the floor and were just 5-of-18 from beyond the arc (27.8 percent) in the loss. 

Babson returns to action on Wednesday when it hosts Saint Joseph (Conn.) at 7 p.m., while Bates travels to Husson on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. 

GAME NOTES
•    The Beavers are now 18-13 all-time against Bates and each of its last six wins in the series have come by double digits. 
•    Sunday's victory for Babson marked just the third time in the last 11 meetings between the teams that the road team has been victorious. 
•    The contest was a homecoming for Baxter, who scored 1,045 points in three seasons and was a four-year member of the Bobcats' squad from 2018-23. 
•    The Beavers have scored at least 70 points in each of their first six contests.