BRUNSWICK — The Bowdoin College men’s basketball team returned to its home floor at Morrell Gymnasium for a meeting with rival Colby, with visiting Mules never trailing in an 83-70 non-conference victory on Thursday night.
Colby took advantage of a fast start to keep separation from the Polar Bears.
For 2-3 Bowdoin, the focus is on getting a better start to games.
“I give them some credit, I thought they prevented us from getting going,” said Bowdoin coach Tim Gilbride. “Credit to them, but we’ve got to come out of the gate a little bit better than we have.”
“We’ve got ourselves in a hole pretty much every game this season,” said guard Jack Simonds. “It’s tough to come back when you play a team that good. It’s definitely going to be a focus for us, starting hot, especially defensively.”
Colby jumped out to an early lead in the first half as Bowdoin struggled from the field. Noah Tyson got things started for the Mules, knocking down a three from the top of the stripe. Colby broke down the Bowdoin defense early, getting into the paint for easier buckets inside.
Wallace Tucker drove to the paint for an easy layup, followed by Sam Jefferson getting to the basket and picking up a foul. Jefferson cashed in on the free throw and Bowdoin was forced to take a timeout just 3:54 into the game as Colby jumped out to an 11-4 lead.
Bowdoin found some offense out of the timeout but still struggled to slow down the Mules. Stephen Ferraro started to push the pace for the Polar Bears, beating his man to the rim for two. Ferraro added another as Bowdoin cut the lead to 13-10.
Colby began to pull away again midway through the half, as Sean Gilmore took an impressive behind the back pass from Alex Dorion. Gilmore was fouled on the play and added the free throw. After a Bowdoin miss, Dorion knocked down a trey from the corner, capping off an 8-0 Colby run and forcing a Polar Bear timeout with 12:41 remaining in the half and the Mules leading 21-10.
“We really wanted to make sure defensively we were focused and locked in from the start,” said Colby Coach Damien Strahorn. “I thought our energy and trying to take them out of their rhythm was really important.”
Bowdoin College’s Jack Simonds (22) goes up for a shot over a Colby defender in the first half of Thursday’s men’s basketball game inside Morrell Gymnasium in Brunswick. The Mules downed the Polar Bears, 83-70. (Brian Beard / CiPhotography.com)
Bowdoin started to gain some traction by showing the Mules a zone defense out of the second timeout. The Mules were unsuccessful in three trips down the floor before spending a timeout of their own. Ferraro lobbed the ball inside to Simonds for an easy bucket to start a run for the Polar Bears. Led by six quick points from Simonds, Bowdoin had closed the deficit to 26-19 before Colby took a second timeout. The zone defense helped the Polar Bears climb back into the game.
“They exploited some of our matchups,” said Simonds. “We had some slower guys including myself and we just gave them a different look. They had such an effective man offense we tried to just give them a different look.”
“The zone definitely changed the rhythm of the game,” added Strahorn. “It took us a little while to find our spacing. I thought we ended up getting some top screening action that sort of got us back in to some movement and some clean looks.”
Colby used the clean looks to extend the lead with a pair of treys from Jefferson and Matt Hanna after the timeout. Simonds paced the Polar Bears, adding another six points to finish with 14 before the half. The Mules settled in to shoot 44 percent from the field in the opening half and finished with a 42-29 lead.
“We weren’t consistent all the way through and I thought they played a great game,” said Gilbride. “I thought they executed very well and played good defense and did the things they needed to do.”
Colby made it difficult for the Polar Bears to climb back into the game to start the second half. Jefferson opened the scoring with a trey to extend the Mules’ lead. Ronan Schwarz found his way to the basket with ease early on, chipping in six points early in the quarter. Colby forced a Bowdoin timeout with an 8-2 run in the opening 2:47 of the half.
The Mules held their largest lead of the game with 14:33 remaining the second half, with Bowdoin trailing by 25 points. The Polar Bears responded by swinging momentum in their favor with a quick 10-0 run. Jack Bors drove to the basket for a layup, and later knocked down a three. Bowdoin’s leading scorer on the season David Reynolds followed that up with a three of his own to cap off the run. Bowdoin cut the lead to 78-65, but that’s as close as the Polar Bears were able to get.
“We went to a little bit of an attack dribble-drive offense late towards the end,” said Simonds. “We tried to attack the hole, kick out to shooters, get some close range buckets. That seemed to work out well. Its just got to be a full game effort instead of the last five minutes.”
Colby held on to earn the 83-70 victory and improved to 5-1 on the season.
Simonds led Bowdoin with 26 points and Ferraro chipped in 17. The silver lining for Bowdoin is the matchup that counts in the New England Small College Athletic Conference standings is still to come.
“We’ve split with them the last five years, so hopefully we can get a split,” said Simonds.
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