Hungry for a win in the rivalry matchup against Colby last Saturday, the women’s basketball team built momentum from the start by jumping on an early lead against the Mules. Bowdoin shut down Colby with a strong defensive performance winning 50-38 and improving their record to 2-3. 
On Tuesday, the team travelled to the University of Maine Farmington (UMF), where they bested the Beavers, 64-47. 
The team played their third game in five days against Bates, losing a back-and-forth 63-57 contest. 
The Polar Bears had a stellar first half against the Mules, making six of 10 three-pointers and shooting  for 48 percent overall from the field.
On the defensive end, Bowdoin smothered Colby’s attempts to get into the paint, limiting the Mules’ offense to outside shots. 
“We knew coming in about Colby’s ability to take teams off the dribble, and so we worked a lot on preventing penetration,” said Head Coach Adrianne Shibles.  
Megan Phelps ’15 had a standout game on both ends of the court, with 16 points, nine rebounds, three blocks, and two steals. 
Phelps credits the Polar Bears’ preparation and attitude for their success on Saturday. 
“We had three days of great practice before the game,” said Phelps.  “We tried to focus on having fun and cheering on our teammates as opposed to being frantic over our losses.” 
 The Polar Bears decided on the slogan “All in” for this season, enforcing the idea that every player is invested. 
Sure enought, there was no shortage of energy from the Polar Bears between players diving to the floor for loose balls to cheers of “defense” from the bench. 
“The first few games we felt like we weren’t winning 50/50 balls and so we talked a lot about winning those situations and working to out-hustle teams,” said Shibles. “I was really pleased with their effort in that game.”
Although an important win, Shibles believes the team still has a lot of improvements to work on. 
“On offense we need to sharpen up our execution of plays and all of us need to realize that we need to consistently be threats in the offense,” she said. 
Highlighting the need to avoid complacency, Phelps said, “we don’t want to settle. This isn’t going to be the highlight of our season, we’re only going to get better from here.”   
In their resounding win over UMF on Tuesday, Bowdoin played neck-and-neck for the first half, eventually gaining a 33-29 lead before the second period. 
Despite losing the lead halfway through, the Polar Bears regained composure, scoring nine uncontested points and eventually outperforming  UMF for the rest of the game 24-5. Phelps had a particularly impressive performance, scoring 22 points and snagging eight rebounds.  
Against Bates on Thursday, the Polar Bears were down 24-20 at the half, but played fiercely to come back in the second period. With only eight minutes left Bowdoin led the Bobcats, 47-43. A late surge in Bates’ scoring led to a 57-59 game with only a minute left, and Bowdoin’s attempts to stop the clock led to four Bates free throws, putting the game away.
The Bobcats out-rebounded Bowdoin 48-29 and particularly  held the advantage in defensive rebounds,  limiting the Polar Bears’ ability for repeated scoring opportunities. 
The team resumes play at the Bowdoin Holiday Invitational on December 29 and 30, in Brunswick.