After earning a spot in the NESCAC Tournament, the men's basketball team saw its season end in an 82-62 quarterfinal loss to Williams on Saturday. The Ephs improve to 24-1 and are ranked No. 1 in the nation heading into the Saturday's semifinal game against Trinity. The Polar Bears end their season with a record of 14-10.
Despite out-rebounding the Ephs 38-36, the Polar Bears couldn't find their shots from the outside, shooting just 5-20 from beyond the arc. A late run by Williams in the first half gave them a 44-26 lead heading into intermission.
Bowdoin failed to get any closer than 16 points in the second half. The Ephs had 10 different players score, three of whom reached double digits.
Randy DeFeo '11 led the Polar Bears in his final collegiate game with 14 points including four of five from three-point range.
Will Hanley '12 recorded another double-double with 11 points and 18 rebounds. Hanley becomes the first Polar Bear to finish the season averaging a double-double since Nick Browning in 1994-95.
Nick Lenker '13 came off the bench and hit all four of his attempts, scoring eight points and grabbing three rebounds. Justin Nowell '12 and Andrew Madlinger '14 also each contributed eight points and three rebounds for the Polar Bears.
"The loss to Williams was extremely disappointing, but we understood going into the game that we were going to have to play our best game of the year to dethrone the number one seed in the tournament," said Tom Carter '12.
"Unfortunately we didn't play up to the level that was required for us to pull off the upset," he continued. "We definitely also left it all out there, but realized some of our weaknesses which we need to improve upon for next season."
Despite falling in the first round of conference play this season, the team is optimistic about next year.
The team is only losing one senior in DeFeo.
"Our outlook for next season is that the sky is the limit," said Nowell. "We have the leading scorer in the league, Will Hanley, returning. We have one of the top [three-point] shooters in the country in Ryan O'Connell returning. We have experience and we have an outstanding recruiting class coming in. Expect us to do big things next year."