AMHERST, Mass. – A strong first half and a well-balanced attack by the No. 25 Amherst College men's basketball team lifted the Jeffs to a 70-53 NESCAC win over Bates College Saturday afternoon in LeFrak Gymnasium.

With the win, the Jeffs improved to 11-4 overall on the year and 2-2 in the NESCAC. The Bobcats lost their second straight game to drop to 11-4 on the year and 1-2 in league play.

David George '17 posted his sixth double-double of the year as he scored 11 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds, including four offensive. He also blocked two shots and has a league-high 30 for the year. Eric Conklin '17 went a perfect 6-for-6 from the floor for a season-high 12 points and Jayde Dawson '18 added 11. Dawson and Connor Green'16 led the team with four assists each.

The Bobcats were led by Mike Boornazian with a game-high 16 points on 7-of-18 shooting. He also grabbed seven rebounds. Graham Safford added 11 points and a team-high two assists, and Marcus Delpeche pulled in 10 boards and registered eight points.

Delpeche hit a lay-up on the first possession of the game to give the visitor's a 2-0 lead, but a three-pointer by Dawson seconds later put Amherst up by one and they never looked back. A lay-up by George and another three-pointer by Nabatoff capped off an 8-0 run within a minute as the Purple & White took an 8-2 lead at the 18:19 mark.

Minutes later, the Jeffs went on another run to take a double-digit lead. Ahead 13-8, the Purple & White rattled off six consecutive points to go ahead by 11 as Nabatoff finished the run with another three-pointer.

With 8:43 remaining in the half, Safford hit one from behind-the-arc to cut the deficit to nine, but Amherst scored 10 unanswered to take its largest of the game. After a lay-up by Conklin at the 4:39 mark, the home team went ahead by 19. They eventually entered the break up 45-30.

The Bobcats wouldn't back down easily and despite trailing by double-digits for most of the second half, a jumper by Safford with 5:51 to play in regulation cut the deficit to eight. Bates had outscored the Jeffs, 21-14 up until that point, but a lay-up by Dawson seconds later put Amherst back up by double-digits as the visitor's hope for a comeback was quickly derailed.

In the final 5:51 of action, Amherst held Bates to just two points as it outscored its NESCAC rivals down the stretch, 11-2, en route to the 70-53 win.

As a team, the Jeffs shot 25-of-54 (46.3%) from the floor, 7-of-23 (30.4%) from downtown and 13-of-22 (59.1%) from the charity stripe. The Bobcats went just 22-of-64 (34.4%) from the floor, 2-of-19 (10.5%) from behind-the-arc and 7-of-14 (50.0%) from the free throw line. The Jeffs edged Bates in rebounding, 40-39, and dished out 14 team assists compared to just six by the Bobcats.

Amherst returns to action Wednesday, Jan. 21 and will host NESCAC archrival Williams at 7 p.m.