Brian Beard

Women's Basketball Courtesy of Bowdoin Athletics

Bowdoin Wins NESCAC Women's Basketball Championship for Second Straight Year

BRUNSWICK, Maine - The Bowdoin College women's basketball team used a dramatic fourth quarter rally to seal their 11th NESCAC Championship on Sunday, coming from behind to defeat Colby, 62-59.
 
The Polar Bears, who have claimed back-to-back conference titles, improve to 27-0 on the year while Colby falls to 15-11. Bowdoin's 11 conference titles are the most of any school in conference history.
 
Game Highlights
  • Colby came out firing, carrying over its hot shooting from Saturday to shoot 63 percent in the first half, taking a 20-17 lead after one quarter and extending the advantage to as many as eight points in the second quarter.
  • Bowdoin used a late surge, including a late bucket by Sydney Jones, who battled foul trouble in the first half, to cut the lead to 38-32 at the break.
  • The Polar Bears jumped ahead in the third quarter, rolling off an 8-1 run, to briefly take a 41-40 lead on a layup from Jones with 6:52 remaining in the period.
  • Colby responded in kind, scoring the next 11 points to end the quarter, and extending its lead to their largest of the game, 51-41, heading into the fourth quarter.
  • The teams traded buckets to start the fourth quarter before a personal 9-0 run by Jones trimmed the Colby lead to 53-52 with 6:01 to go.
  • Bowdoin cut the lead to a point on three occasions, the last of which coming after a pair of Carly Davey free throws with 1:26 to go.
  • After a defensive stop, Jones drove to her right and banked home the go-ahead lay-in and was fouled with 41 seconds remaining to give Bowdoin the lead for good, 60-58.
  • After the teams exchanged single free throws in the closing seconds, Colby's Amelia Hansom missed a desperation three-point shot and Rachel Storey netted a single free throw with under a second to go to seal the 62-59 win.
By The Numbers
  • Bowdoin turned the game around defensively in the second half, holding the Mules to 33 percent shooting and just 21 points.
  • Sydney Jones took over offensively, outscoring Colby herself in the second half of the game, totaling 22 points and ending with 24 points and five rebounds.
  • Abbie Quinn added 10 points for Bowdoin while Grace Kinum kept Bowdoin afloat in the first half and finished with 13 points, eight rebounds, and five steals off the bench.
  • Bowdoin shot 43 percent for the game as Colby ended at 47 percent. The difference was 11 second chance points by the Polar Bears, who held a 32-27 edge on the glass.
  • The consecutive NESCAC Championships for Bowdoin marks the first back-to-back conference titles in the league since Amherst won three straight between 2016-19. It is the first back-to-back crowns for Bowdoin since the Polar Bears won seven straight between 2001-2007.
Up Next
  • Bowdoin earns the NESCAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship and enters the NCAA Tournament undefeated for the second time in program history (2004). The NCAA Division III Tournament field will be announced at 2:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon at NCAA.com