The women’s basketball team continued its exceptional run this week, recording victories against Colby and Husson on Saturday and Tuesday, respectively. The squad now boasts a very impressive 17-2 record this season.
The Polar Bears met stern opposition on Saturday in their fifth NESCAC contest of the year. After a stellar 16-point first-half performance from sophomore standout Shannon Brady, Bowdoin held a 40-33 halftime lead at Morrell Gymnasium. The Mules closed to within four points of the Polar Bears with 18 minutes to play, but a powerful response from the home team was too much for the Colby defense to handle.
Bowdoin proceeded to score 18 unanswered points and won 73-53. Brady scored a game-high 22 points, while captains Sara Binkhorst ’15 and Kristen Prue ’14 scored 11 and eight, respectively.
“Offensively, we have a very balanced attack,” said captain Allie Piscina ’14. “We know anyone is bound to step up on any given night, and against Colby we did a really good job incorporating the whole team.”
Bowdoin hosted the Husson Eagles on Tuesday in their last non-conference game of the season. The women never trailed once on their way to an 85-50 victory. After a slow start, Bowdoin pulled ahead to a 44-29 lead at halftime. After intermission the Polar Bears continued to press the Eagles, at one point increasing their lead to as many as 40 points.
Fourteen different players scored for Bowdoin on the night, evidence of a very capable and hungry bench. Piscina and Binkhorst led the scoring for the Polar Bears with 12 and 11 points on the night, respectively.
“I think we have great leadership, team chemistry and a lot of depth,” explained Head Coach Adrienne Shibles. “We have a very young team and the way we have achieved this season speaks very highly for what is to come.”
The depth of the Bowdoin roster has been a key to the squad’s success on the court this year. This is even more impressive considering the average age of the squad; ten of the sixteen women are either first years or sophomores.
Piscina is happy with the current team dynamic.
“The upperclassmen have done a good job incorporating the whole team,” she said. “We are very happy to have players consistently playing well and there are definitely players who have been developing this year that will continue to improve for years to come.”
This coming weekend the Polar Bears will host a huge weekend of NESCAC action. Bowdoin will play Trinity College (3-2 NESCAC) tonight and No. 13 Amherst College (4-1 NESCAC) tomorrow in Morrell Gymnasium.
“If we want to be successful this weekend we need to focus on our strengths and use our size in the post,” explained Nina Hadzibabic '16. “When we play Amherst they will be a very tall team so we will have to mark up well on their dangerous players.”
“We are looking at this weekend one game at a time,” said Shibles. “Both Trinity and Amherst are very physical teams and great at rebounding. We need to increase our physicality in the paint in order to be successful.”
After this weekend the Polar Bears will only have three games remaining in the regular season. The women are currently ranked third in the NESCAC and the next five games will go a long way to determining their playoff seed.