A career-high 25 points from sophomore Amy Hackett helped the women's basketball team trounce the University of Maine-Farmington on Tuesday at Morrell Gymnasium by a score of 91-34. The Polar Bears, now 17-5, will face off against Wesleyan College on Friday and Connecticut College on Saturday.
The Polar Bears stepped on to the court playing strong and maintained a high level of intensity throughout the first half.
Overwhelming defensive effort held the Farmington Beavers to 29 percent shooting and forced an impressive 17 turnovers.
The Polar Bears collected a total of five three-pointers in the half, three of which came from Hackett. Bowdoin entered the locker room with a hefty 43-15 lead.
"Amy Hackett has emerged as an important leader for our team," said Coach Adrienne Shibles. "She is improving every game, and is consistently bringing the highest level of intensity and focus on both ends of the court."
Polar Bear play remained strong throughout the second half, shooting 50 percent from the field. In addition to Hackett with 25 points, other top scorers for Bowdoin were Sabrina Cote '10 and Ellery Gould '12, each with 12 points, and Caitlin Hynes '10 with 10 points.
First year Madison Whitley also banked a career-high nine points.
Coach Shibles also spoke of the return of injured players to the team for the Farmington game.
"It was wonderful to have Jill Henrikson '12, Colleen Sweeney '11 and Christina Aceto '11 on the bench for our Farmington game. All three have recently undergone surgeries and could not make the trip to Middlebury and Williams. Their presence was sorely missed for those two contests."
The Polar Bears faced a setback Saturday when they fell to the Williams College Ephs for the first time since 2000.
Bowdoin could not hold on to an early 12-5 lead in the first half, and Williams quickly tied the score at 14 with 12:35 seconds to play in the first half. At the start of intermission, the tides had turned in favor of the Ephs who led 37-24.
Williams pulled away from Bowdoin in the second half, scoring six three-pointers. Katie Bergeron '11 led the team with 18 points, followed by Hackett with 12 points and Hynes with 10 and eight rebounds.
"After the loss to Williams, we regrouped and had some productive conversations about how we plan to finish the season," said Shibles. "That focus was evident in the Farmington game; it was great to see them playing with passion and shooting the ball with confidence. We will certainly build on this win as we head into the weekend."
On Friday, the Polar Bears surpassed the Middlebury College Panthers for the twelfth straight time by a score of 61-45.
The team pulled away to an early lead against the Panthers with eight points from Kaitlin Donahoe '13 and six from Leah Rubega '10. They ended the half up by 12 points, and maintained their double-digit lead through most of the second half.
The Polar Bears forced a total of 34 turnovers in the game. Top scorers for Bowdoin were Rubega with 13 points and 13 boards, Hynes with 12 points, and Bergeron with nine.
The team will face Wesleyan College and Connecticut College at home this weekend.
"The entire team is very excited about bringing our very best effort to senior weekend as a tribute to our special tri-captains," said Shibles.