The men’s basketball team built on its perfect performance in the Rick Martin Tip-Off Tournament with at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine (3-3) and the University of New England (UNE) (1-5) before falling by double digits to Babson College (5-1) and Bates College (7-0) this week, lowering its own record to 4-2.
In the UNE game, Bowdoin dominated early, going on a 17-6 run that carried the Polar Bears to a commanding 37-26 lead at the half. The team shot 43 percent from the field and reached the free throw line 14 times, missing only once.
Captain Keegan Pieri ’15, with 22 points and seven rebounds, and captain Bryan Hurley ’15, with 14 points and six assists, pushed the Polar Bears to an impressive 67-48 win over the Nor’easters with their individual performances.
The Polar Bears’ strong start to the season was due in part to the strong team chemistry. With only 13 players, they have been able to form an especially cohesive unit.
“Because we are such a small team, we are around and interacting with each other all the time—on the court and off the court,” said Pieri. “We really got to know each other right off the bat.”
The Polar Bears’ perfect start ended when they traveled to Babson a week after the UNE game and suffered a 20-point loss.
Senior center John Swords led the Polar Bears with a double-double and Pieri added 11 points to the team’s total. Nevertheless, the team could not keep up with the Beavers and lost the game 68-48.
“It was the first time we were really tested,” said Hurley.
Both captains agreed that having all of their first six games on the road has actually been beneficial to the team.
They said that they have been able to get stronger early in the season by competing in so many different venues. It also means that they will have more home games toward the end of the season, which could lead to a late-season run.
For the Polar Bears, the Babson game was their first taste of a noisy crowd, and many players were able to feed off the energy of the away crowds just as much as their own.
“I prefer the silence of away crowds rather than excited home crowds,” said Hurley.
The highlight of the season so far has been the team’s shooting—with a season total of 43.8 percent from the field and 81 percent from the free throw line, the Polar Bears are running a high-efficiency offense.
Yesterday the Polar Bears fell to Bates, again by 20 points. Lucas Hausman ’16 had 22 points on 7-13 shooting but the rest of the team shot only 34 percent from the field.
The team looks to get back on track tomorrow when it plays Colby in its home opener.