The women’s basketball team topped Middlebury 60-40 last Friday but lost on Saturday to nationally-ranked Williams 50-42, dropping the Polar Bears’ record to 12-9 (3-5 NESCAC).
The Polar Bear’s scoring against Middlebury was a balanced effort. Shannon Brady ’16 led the effort with 12 points while Siena Mitman ’15 scored 11 and Megan Phelps ’15 added 10.
Bowdoin dominated in the post, outscoring Middlebury 42-22 in the paint.
“We recognized early in the game that we could really take it to them on the inside, so we focused on that,” said Head Coach Adrienne Shibles.
The Polar Bears’ offense was also fueled by their defensive stops—they converted 17 points off of 15 Middlebury turnovers. Their defensive strategy focused on ball pressure.
“They were pretty sloppy with their passing,” said captain Anna Prohl ’14. “Having a defensive player like [Mitman] come in and make every pass hard for Middlebury really helped us break away.”
The loss to Williams on Saturday marks the first time in ten years that the Ephs have beat the Polar Bears in Morrell Gymnasium.
The game was extremely low scoring, with the teams making only two baskets apiece in the first eight minutes. Bowdoin carried a 21-15 lead into halftime, but Williams dominated the second half.
“Williams was one of those days we just couldn’t score the ball; maybe people were too amped up or nervous,” said Prohl. “It was disappointing because we had good looks, we just couldn’t finish them.”
The Polar Bears shot 19 percent from the field. Williams’ 6-foot senior Danny Rainer also blocked nine Bowdoin shots.
“We talked a lot about it [referring to Williams’ ability to block shots] and did post work practice on up-fakes, but positions two through five [were] 5’11 and up,” said Shibles.
Captain Kaitlin Donahoe ’13 kept the Polar Bears alive as best she could, scoring 22 points by driving to the basket and repeatedly drawing fouls. She helped get the Ephs into early foul trouble, and racked up a total of 16 free throw shots.
On Williams’ side, Brunswick’s own Claire Baecher had a big performance in her hometown with a season-high 22 points as well as 10 rebounds.
“I knew she’d have a big crowd, I talked about it with the team to mentally prepare them,” said Shibles.
“This was a really hard loss, not only because it was Kaitlin’s Senior Day but because we’ve been stressing all season to play for 40 minutes and we just didn’t do that,” said Prohl.
The Polar Bears have a crucial weekend ahead, travelling to Connecticut to face Wesleyan and Connecticut College. All three teams have the same 3-5-conference record.