JOHN KOVACH | Colleges Poland's Bates surpasses 1,000 points for Ohio U.

ATHENS -- Just as she did while at Poland High, Candace Bates will be leaving a rich legacy with the Ohio University women's basketball team after this season.
Bates, the Bobcats' 5-foot-10 senior guard with a knack for making the 3-point goal, recently surpassed 1,000 career points and had 1,013 entering Saturday's game at Western Michigan to rank No. 11 on the school's all-time list.
When she played for the Poland girls team and coach Jamie Dunn, she set the school career scoring record with 1,269 points.
Bates surpassed the 1,000-point mark two Wednesdays ago in Ohio's 76-55 Mid-American Conference loss to Bowling Green, by scoring 10 points which gave her 1,004.
She became the 11th OU woman to reach 1,000, and the first to do it since Lori Moorman achieved the feat on Dec. 9, 2002, against West Virginia.
Bates has a good chance to climb even higher on the school's all-time chart, being within range of Nancy Evans, who is No. 10 with 1,098 points; and Natalie Britt, No. 9, 1,099.
Bates also ranks is No. 2 in career 3-point goals with 149, but is well behind her former OU teammate, No. 1 Cathy Szall, who made 242 from 1998-2002.
And Bates is No. 4 in career 3-point shooting percentage with 36.9 on 149-for-404; and is tied for No. 6 in 3-point goals for one season with 47, doing that twice as a junior and sophomore.
Factors in milestone
Bates credits her 1,000-point milestone to her success with the 3-point goal, a lot of practice and playing time over four seasons, and her team's defensive pressure that creates turnovers to give her down-the-floor scoring opportunities.
"The 3s help you to build up your points," said Bates, who has sharpened her eye with practice. "Being in the gym, getting extra work over the summer, being able to shoot the 3 better" all have helped.
"We have a spring workout with the team, and in the summer I would stay at the school to go to summer school and work out with the team," Bates said. "I have been getting a lot of playing time the past three years. I also had good minutes my freshman year which helped me."
Plus, "Playing a full-court defense helped us turn our defense into the offense with some steals," Bates said.
3-point-goal leader
Entering this past weekend, Bates led the Bobcats (10-13, 4-8 MAC) in 3-point goals (34 for 1.5 a game), and ranked No. 2 in scoring (8.8-point average) and No. 3 in rebounding (3.1) and assists (1.3). She is 62-for-192 overall from the field, including 62-for-192 from 3-point range.
She canned a career-high six 3-point goals and 20 points in OU's 85-65 win over Buffalo two Saturdays ago.
Bates is hoping her team can win its first game in the MAC tournament March 6 and qualify for the main phase of the meet at Cleveland's Gund Arena that will begin March 10.
"This is my last year so I definitely want to be successful in the MAC," said Bates. "I hope that we can get to Cleveland so that a lot of my friends can come up and watch me play."
Was Poland leader
While at Poland, Bates led the Bulldogs into the state semifinals as a senior, and made honorable mention all-state and first team All-Northeast Ohio and All-Metro Athletic Conference.
The daughter of Paul and Sandi Bates, she is majoring in visual communications with an emphasis on interactive multi-media for video and audio productions, and is planning to graduate in the spring of 2005. She is looking for a career in web designs and sales.
Also on the Ohio roster is Darcy Quinlan, a freshman from Howland High who is a redshirt this season.
kovach@vindy.com