With the State of Maine in a winter storm warning for the next couple of days due to a potential nor’easter on the horizon, the Bowdoin College men’s basketball team showed that it wasn’t to be bothered by a storm of its own, defeating the University of New England Nor’easters 67-48 on Tuesday at the Harold Alfond Forum.

Bowdoin (4-0) cruised to its fourth win of the year, leading most of the way by double digits.

“I thought we played very good defense throughout the game with good energy,” said Polar Bears coach Tim Gilbride, who is now in his 30th season with Bowdoin. “We mixed up a few things, playing some man, playing some zone, but our guys had their heads in it and they (UNE) have some guys that are tough to match up with.”

“It starts defensively with us, we really locked down,” Bowdoin senior captain Keegan Pieri said after the game. “We really worked on keeping them out of the paint, with big John (Swords) inside making it easier to get it to our shooters and contest. That was our main focus because they had some guys that could really get it going.”

Pieri led the way for the Polar Bears, scoring 22 points, totaling an even split of 11 in each half. His offensive efforts put helped put Bowdoin up by 14 in the first half.

Though the offense was working in the Polar Bears favor, the locked-down defense that Pieri mentioned played a critical role in the victory as the Nor’easters scored 30 of their 47 points from beyond the arc, shooting 10-of-26.

“Our defense was pretty consistent throughout the game,” Gilbride said. “I thought we looked good at times and did some good things, though other times I thought we rushed it a little bit, but I think we played a good game overall. They’re a good team, so I was happy with the win.”

“Every game the most important thing for us is defense,” Pieri said. “That’s how we were successful last year, that’s how we want to go about things this year. It always starts with our defense, we can run out of that and we can compose on offense afterward.”

The Nor’easters made an effort to close in on the Polar Bears in the second half, cutting the deficit from 14 at the end of the first half to as little as seven with 13:19 left to play when UNE’s Evrim Ozkan (13 points) drained a trey from the left side. How- ever, the Polar Bears showed no fear, slowly increasing their lead as the final minutes ticked off the clock, eventually ending with a 19- point differential.

“We have a lot of young guys and they’re all stepping up,” Pieri said of his team’s early success. “They’re all playing well and you see a lot of confidence, which is good at this point of the season because we lost a lot of the older guys, so that was something coming in that we needed get, and again I’ll just stress the defense, really working hard on defense starts in practice.”

“I’m happy with how hard we’re playing and how unselfishly we’re playing,” Gilbride said. “No one cares who scores, so guys are making the extra pass for their teammates all the time. It’s been fun, but we have a ways to go and a lot of big games coming up.”

Both Swords and senior co-captain Bryan Hurley joined Pieri as top scorers in the game, adding 15 and 14 points, respectively.

Bowdoin will stay on the road and will travel to Babson Park, Mass., on Monday to take on the Beavers at 7:30 p.m.

Bowdoin 67, UNE 48

At Harold Alfond Forum in Biddeford
Bowdoin — 37 30 — 67
UNE — 26 22 — 48
Bowdoin — Bryan Hurley 4-2-14,
Neil Fuller 1-0-2, Lucas Hausman 1-
0-2, Keegan Pieri 8-4-22, John
Swords 6-3-15, Matt Palecki 3-0-6,
Jake Donnelly 1-4-6, Blake Gordon 0-
0-0, Sam Jablonski 0-0-0, Stephen
Girolamo 0-0-0, Liam Farley 0-0-0,
Jack Hewitt 0-0-0.
UNE — Devin Thompson 2-0-6,
Jean-Luc Parker 4-0-12, Evrim Ozkan
6-0-13, CJ Autry 2-0-5, Sam Thomas
2-0-4, Andy Kalu 1-0-3, Tom Nason
1-0-2, Drew Coveney 0-0-0, Mano
Senthil 0-0-0, Matt Lettick 1-0-3,
Gavin Dibble 0-0-0, Luke Rohan 0-0-
0, Diego Ordonez 0-0-0, Zach Knowlton 0-0-0.
3-point goals — Bowdoin Hurley 4,
Pieri 2; UNE Parker 4, Thompson 2,
Ozkan, Autry, Lettick, Kalu.
Records — Bowdoin 4-0; UNE 1-3.
Up next for Bowdoin — Away at Babson College on Monday, 7:30 p.m.