Women’s basketball finished its regular season with a 72-59 win against Connecticut College on Sunday evening, boosting its overall record to 13-10 (4-6 NESCAC) and earning it the last playoff spot in the NESCAC. On Saturday, captain Kaitlin Donahoe ’13 surpassed the 1,000-point mark, but the Polar Bears fell a point short to Wesleyan, 70-69.  

With the Polar Bears leading on Saturday, Wesleyan grabbed an offensive rebound in their last possession and took the lead by one point. The Polar Bears had one possession left but failed to score due to a travelling violation.  

“We had a chance to win the game and we didn’t put the ball in the hoop and they made that big play down the stretch,” said Head Coach Adrienne Shibles.

The Polar Bears faced adversity even before the game began. Notified at noon on Saturday that their scheduled game against Conn. was called off due to the blizzard, the Polar Bears received a surprising call four hours later informing them they were playing Wesleyan in a couple of hours.  

“It was not the team we were prepared for,” said Shibles. 

On the defensive end, the Polar Bears looked to stop Wesleyan’s guards from driving to the basket.  

“We looked to pressure them hard and to do some trapping around the basket,” said Shibles. 

However, with the officials calling a “tight” game, according to Shibles, Bowdoin quickly found itself in foul trouble. Donahoe, the team’s leader, had two fouls within the first five minutes. 

“I thought the game plan was good,” said Shibles. “It was just the way the refs were calling it made it hard to play an aggressive half-court game.”

The Polar Bears had some difficulty with Wesleyan’s zone defense but were hurt by their low shooting percentage, making only 18 of 51 shots. 

In the second half the Polar Bears came out more offensively aggressive in order to tap into Wesleyan’s success in drawing fouls. Bowdoin was able get to the line and capitalized on its free throws, only missing one out of 27. 

“I was proud of our kids, the game didn’t start until a quarter to 10, and we were in a hostile situation with [Wesleyan] students sitting right behind our bench,” said Shibles. “It was a tough weekend and I thought given all that, they played with good intensity and scrapped hard. Some of our shots just didn’t fall.”

The Polar Bears had little time to recover for Connecticut College after getting back to their hotel at around 12:30 in the morning. Conn. did not play a game on Saturday.  
“We were going into it at a disadvantage,” said Shibles. 

Nevertheless, the Polar Bears came out with intensity, taking the lead from the start and never letting it go. 

“I was really proud of how they were mentally ready and sharp,” said Shibles.
One huge improvement was the Polar Bear’s shooting percentage. Bowdoin made 50 percent of its 3-point shots. Donahoe led with 20 points and Sara Binkhorst ’15 had 19.
The Polar Bears commanded a comfortable lead for most of the game until a late surge when Connecticut cut the lead down to six. 

“There was a stretch where I felt like we didn’t have the sense of urgency about scoring the basketball… it wasn’t that we weren’t playing hard,” said Shibles. “We were up ten and I think we felt comfortable. I called a timeout and said ‘we need to score’ and I thought they responded and made that run really well.”

The Polar Bears managed to do just enough to enter the playoffs, wrapping up the final seed of the NESCAC tournament on Wednesday night after Tufts beat Hamilton in order to guarantee the Polar Bears the win. Even though Conn. College had the same conference record (4-6) as Bowdoin, the Polar Bears pushed them out of the tournament by virtue of their higher overall record. The NESCAC playoff picture was extremely close, with three 9-1 teams and five 4-6 teams making the final cut. Of the 4-6 teams, Bowdoin boasts the highest winning percentage across all games. 
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Despite the strong finish to the end of their season, the Polar Bears will face Tufts, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, on Saturday at 4 p.m. Tufts beat Bowdoin 62-44 on January 11 in a defensive clash in which only 25 points were scored by both teams in the first half.