Courtesy of Brian Beard

The women’s basketball team (20–2; 7–1 NESCAC) earned its 20th win of the season beating Tufts University (11–10; 3–5 NESCAC) 77–63 on Saturday. The team is preparing for a doubleheader weekend against Hamilton College (16–6; 4–4 NESCAC) and Amherst College (18–4; 5–3 NESCAC) as it concludes the regular season and heads into NESCAC playoffs.

After a high-scoring first quarter, Bowdoin gained an early lead in the second quarter against Tufts, followed by a five-point run from Carly Davey ’26. Bowdoin’s offense was in control for the rest of the game, leading by as many as 17 points in the fourth quarter. Sydney Jones led the Polar Bears with 20 points in the victory.

The away game was well attended by Bowdoin alumni, and the team was grateful for their support.

“It feels cool to be a part of Bowdoin women’s basketball and the legacy,” forward Callie Godfrey ’24 said.

Losing to Bates College (19–3; 7–1 NESCAC) the previous weekend turned out to be an unlikely positive for the team. With a 20–2 record this season, the game against Tufts was an important test of resilience for the players.

“In some ways, it’s nice to know that losing doesn’t determine the next game. For us, it took a little bit of pressure off in a way where we can still bounce back,” Godfrey said.

Each NESCAC game presents a unique challenge to the team.

“We regard every opponent the same way—no one is too big or too little to go against. We are confident but we also acknowledge the talent each team brings,” Megan Tan ’23 said. “Tufts is very talented, and we’re talented too, and it’s about who strings along all the pieces necessary to win a basketball game. And I think our team so far this season has done a really good job of doing that.”

The team hopes to carry this mindset into this weekend, which will determine both the opponent and location of its NESCAC playoff games.

“Amherst and Hamilton have two different styles of playing. We have to figure out what each team wants to do,” Tan said.

“I think what’s nice is this whole past season, and even these two games [is that] we’ve put ourselves in a really good position of keeping our season going. What we’re playing for [this weekend] is whether or not we’re going to host and whether or not we get to keep having more home games,” Godfrey said.

Last season was Megan Phelps’s first as head coach. She focused on establishing values and building culture. Now that the team is seeing its hard work pay off, it does not intend to slow down.

“Bowdoin’s women’s basketball has an incredible tradition of excellence.… The expectations don’t change for the program,” Phelps said.

The team is having its best season since 2020. Phelps believes much of this season’s success comes from offseason preparation.

“I think they worked incredibly hard in the offseason to put themselves in this position, and I credit a lot of our success to that. I think they prepared extremely well,” Phelps said.

The team is also looking forward to its senior night.

“I’m really excited to celebrate our seniors, I feel like reflecting on a lot of the time that we’ve had with them, they’re some of my best friends, it’s really awesome and sentimental to see all the nice things that people have said about them and their leadership,” Godfrey said.

The team will play Hamilton tonight and Amherst tomorrow in Morrell Gym.