Bates, Hanlon, O’Keefe named captains for men’s basketball

Head coach Sean Foster has announced a trio of captains for the men’s basketball team’s 2015-2016 season: Nicholas Bates ’17, Barrett Hanlon ’16 and Chris O’Keefe ’16.

“Our staff and players are excited to begin the 2015-2016 season,” Foster said. “With seven energetic new players, including three transfers, along with six solid returners, we have an excellent nucleus to compete well in the Commonwealth Coast Conference. I’m eager to work with this group to achieve our goal of becoming the most productive unit we can be through collective daily improvement.”

Bates entered his junior season with a single-game career-high 28 points in an 80-67 win at Roger Williams University. He promptly shattered that mark with a 31-point effort in the second game of this season, the championship game of the Wheaton College Tip-Off Classic.

Hanlon earned all-conference honors in each of his first two seasons with the Seahawks, including an injury-shortened season last year. He scored 20 or more points in seven of 16 games played in 2014-2015, including a career-high 40 points in the season finale at Curry College.

O’Keefe will begin his senior campaign in similar fashion to Hanlon last year, on the sidelines recovering from off-season surgery. Last season he played in 24 games, started five, and scored a career-high 18 points in Salve Regina’s 79-76 victory at Gordon College.