The Bowdoin College women’s basketball team has made a name for itself over the course of the season. Going into this past Saturday’s New England Small College Athletic Conference quarterfinal game against Middlebury, the Polar Bears were ranked 18th overall in the nation, according to D3Hoops.com.

After having an 18-game winning streak snapped by No. 1 Tufts a week ago, 66-55, the Polar Bears wanted nothing more than to rebound heading into the NESCAC playoffs.

Rebounding was a major component in the No. 2 Polar Bears’ (22-3) 80-52 victory over the seventh-seeded Panthers (11-14), holding a 50-27 comparison in rebounds, with 27 coming in the offensive zone.

“Last time we played Middlebury we went back and watched the film and felt like they did a much better job on the ‘O-boards’ than we did,” Polar Bears head coach Adrienne Shibles said after the game. “We worked on that all week, just on our rebounding game and I felt like that showed today.”

“Our offensive rebounding was definitely something we focused on since the last time we played them,” said junior forward Shannon Brady, who ended the night with a floor-high 25 points. “We just focused on defensive intensity, just Bowdoin basketball. Bowdoin defense is something that we take a lot of pride in, so all week in practice we’ve really been pushing each other and playing with a lot of intensity just to prepare us for this game.”

Prior to the start of the game, Polar Bears senior Sara Binkhorst was awarded an honorary basketball to recognize her achievement of notching her 1,000th career point during the final regular season game against Tufts. Binkhorst drained 12 more points on the night, including three steals and a block, as well as five assists.

Both teams shared buckets to start the half, with the game knotted at six each after four minutes of play.

Though the majority of the half shared that same style of play, the Polar Bears were able to break free with an 11-2 run at the end of the frame, including a buzzer-beating 3- pointer off the hands of Sydney Hancock.

Rotating the bench

All but two players for Bowdoin found themselves in double digit minutes on the court, with the remaining two still getting seven-plus minutes on the floor. The bench compiled 27 of the team’s 80 points, including 17 from sophomore Ally Silfen, making the nationally-ranked Polar Bears a difficult team to work around.

“I think it’s huge, one through 13, we all trust each other,” Brady said about the importance of having a wellrounded set of reserves. “There’s no animosity whatsoever. We push each other in practice so much. Having that and not having to play five people the entire time is such a huge factor for us this year.”

“It’s critical,” Shibles said. “We lost one of our key leaders and players in Megan Phelps with a broken ankle, so having that deep bench to go to has been instrumental in keeping us moving forward.”

The Polar Bears continued to add to their lead, dropping what appeared to be two shots to every Middlebury one. With more than nine minutes to play, Bowdoin added an 9-2 run followed by an 8-3 spurt to put the game away.

With the victory, the Polar Bears will travel to Tufts University on Saturday to take on No. 3 Amherst (23-2) in the NESCAC semifinals at 4 p.m. The Jeffs defeated Colby, 62-40 in the opening round. Bowdoin and Amherst matched up once this season, with the victory going into the hands of the Polar Bears, 60-51.

“We played them really tough here (during the regular season),” Shibles said about her team’s upcoming opponent. “But that same rebounding effort is going to be huge, as well as that defensive effort. We’re a little smaller than we were with Megan, so everyone just needs to raise their physicality a little bit and defend.”

“Going into Amherst I think we have that confidence and refocus back,” Brady said about coming off of the loss against Tufts to end the regular season and beating Middlebury. “I think we’re going to have another great week in practice where we push each other and challenge each other with the things we did wrong in this game. It’s a learning experience after every game.”

Bowdoin 80,
Middlebury 52

At Bowdoin’s Morrell Gymnasium
Middlebury — 27 25 — 52
Bowdoin — 44 36 — 80
Middlebury — Rachel Crews 2-0-5,
Elizabeth Knox 5-4-14, Alexis
Coolidge 3-0-6, Sabrina Weeks 4-0-9,
Sarah Kaufman 4-1-11, Eileen Daley
1-1-3, Siobhan O’Sullivan 0-0-0,
Holly Lanchantin 0-0-0, Rachel
Collins 0-0-0, Krystina Reynolds 1-2-
4, Christina Nowak 0-0-0, Totals —
20-8-52.
Bowdoin — Shannon Brady 10-5-25,
Kate Kerrigan 3-2-8, Marle Curle 1-0-
2, Sara Binkhorst 5-2-12, Siena Mitman 2-0-4, Sydney Hancock 1-0-3,
Lauren Petit 2-0-5, Rachel Norton 0-
2-2, Hannah Cooke 0-0-0, Lydia
Caputi 0-0-0, Ally Silfen 7-2-17, Emily
Campbell 1-0-2, Totals — 32-13-80.
3-point field goals — (M) Kaufman
2, Crews, Weeks; (B) Hancock, Petit,
Silfen.
Records — Bowdoin 22-3, 10-1
NESCAC; Middlebury 11-14, 3-8
NESCAC.
Up next for the Polar Bears —
NESCAC semifinals at Tufts University
on Saturday against No. 5 Amherst, 4
p.m.