Over a month ago, in the midst of its season-opening 12-game winning streak, the men’s basketball team handily beat Colby (8-8 overall, 1-4 NESCAC) by 18 points at home in an out-of-conference matchup. Last Saturday’s rematch was much closer. With a second place position in the NESCAC on the line, the Polar Bears narrowly edged the Mules 64-59 in Morrell Gymnasium to improve to 15-1 on the season (4-1 NESCAC).
After raining down six threes and scoring 28 points on only 14 shots in the teams’ first meeting, Andrew Madlinger ’14 was locked down by the Colby defense, which only allowed him to take seven shots the entire game.
With Madlinger kept in check, the No. 22 Polar Bears were still able to take a 35-28 lead going into halftime with the help of the frontcourt duo of juniors John Swords and Keegan Pieri.
After Colby tied the game with just over 11 minutes left in regulation, Bowdoin quickly regained the lead by racing off to a 10-2 run. But the Mules—far from defeated—chipped the lead down to five with 55 seconds to go.
Electing to make Bowdoin win the game on the free-throw line, Colby resisted the urge to shoot three-pointers and the Mules’ Luke Westman drove into the lane for an easy two to cut the lead down to three.
Colby’s pressure on the subsequent inbounds play forced the Polar Bears into a turnover, giving Colby the ball and a chance to tie the game with 17 seconds left. But the Mules missed their three-point attempt and Grant White ’14 made a pair of free throws on the other end to seal the win.
“They just picked up their intensity all over the place,” said Lucas Hausman ’16 on Colby’s transformation since their last meeting. “It threw us out of what we do a little bit but we were able to get back to it and pull it out.”
“They really got out at guys, were physical, and tried to get us out of what we were trying to do and were successful with that to a degree,” said Head Coach Tim Gilbride. “What’s been good about our team, though, I think we are capable of taking whatever the other team is going to give us. We were able then to get the ball inside where [Swords] did some scoring and Keegan did some scoring.”
On Tuesday, the team traveled to Waterville, where it blew Thomas College (6-11) out in a 106-42 win. The Polar Bears were dominant on both ends of the floor—only allowing Thomas to shoot 25 percent from the floor while scoring a season-high 106 points.
Many members of the team contributed to the high score. Madlinger and Matt Mathias ’14 went a combined 9-15 from beyond the arc and Hausman, Neil Fuller ’17, and Marko Peraica ’15 added 16, 11, and 9 from the bench, respectively.
Hausman has been the team’s sixth man all season, producing big numbers in limited minutes coming off the bench.
“When I come in, I think it goes for the other guys coming off the bench too, I just try and bring as much energy into the game,” said Hausman. “If our offense is a little stagnant or if we’re not doing what we need to do I just try to bring some energy and pick everybody up.”
The team’s ability to pull from its talented bench has been an essential part of its success this season.
“We’ve needed contributions from a lot of people on our team to pull out different games along the way,” said Gilbride. “We’re certainly going to need that in the games coming up.”
Bowdoin is preparing for games against Trinity and No. 3 Amherst tonight and tomorrow. As the team enters the heart of the NESCAC schedule it needs to continue its success to remain near the top of the conference standings.
“I think we’re pretty confident,” said Gilbride. “We’re capable of playing a higher scoring game or a lower scoring game depending on how the flow of the game goes.”