Bowdoin forward Abbie Quinn rises for a shot against Colby. The sophomore led all scorers with 16 points. Brian Beard / Bowdoin Athletics

BRUNSWICK — The Bowdoin women’s basketball team may be 17-0, the fifth-ranked team in the nation and the last undefeated team left in the New England Small College Athletic Conference, but do the Polar Bears believe they are at their best?

“No, definitely not,” senior guard Sydney Jones said. “I think we still have space room to grow offensively. We’re working a lot on our offensive movement, getting to good passes, getting a lot of assists, but there’s always space for us to grow. Like Coach (Megan Phelps) says, we don’t want to be playing our best basketball right now. We want to be playing our best basketball in March, when it really counts.”

Although the conference and NCAA tournaments are still weeks away, Saturday’s 61-56 win over in-state rival Colby was a valuable test for Bowdoin.

The Polar Bears never trailed, at one point in the third quarter holding a 13-point lead, but scoring droughts and an aggressive press defense allowed the Mules (9-8) to cut the lead to five multiple times in the fourth.

Sophomore forward Abbie Quinn led Bowdoin with 16 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Jones added 15 points, six rebounds and a season-high seven assists.

“We came out trying to focus on playing our tempo, and I felt like there were stretches, especially in the third quarter, where we pushed the ball with pace and got to some easy shots,” Phelps said. “But I was really proud of my team, the way they handle themselves really well in close games, and I thought they never lost their poise.”

Freshman guard Grace Kinum scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds off the bench. Senior forward Callie Godfrey added eight points, two steals and two blocks.

From the opening possession, Bowdoin used its height to its advantage. The Polar Bears repeatedly attacked the low post and didn’t attempt a 3-pointer until the second quarter. Quinn scored 12 of her points in the first half, either off the pick-and-roll or the drive-and-dump. Jones, who found her three times, just had to drop-and-watch.

“Being able to play with her for my second year has just built that awesome connection,” Quinn said of Jones. “She reads the court so well, reads my movement, I’m able to read hers. And so, yeah, we just built that bond.”

Jones added: “We’ve had an emphasis on our transition running and spacing these past couple games, especially in the first half, in the first quarter, so it was really easy to get girls open on the wings and driving to the basket on those transition plays. I think in general, our posts have been doing a really good job of posting up and getting to open space for dish passes in there. They’re so strong and really tall, so they have a lot of space and time to get it up.”

Bowdoin shot 52.1% from the field and scored 38 points in the paint. The Polar Bears shot 41.2% (7 of 17) from the free-throw line.

Colby struggled to find an offensive rhythm early outside of free throws (7 of 8 in the first quarter, 15 of 20 for the game), but stayed within two possessions at the end of the first quarter, 18-16, and at halftime, 32-27.

Junior guard Lydia Mordarski led the Mules with 15 points. Sophomore forward Amelia Hanscom contributed 13 points and eight rebounds.

Kate Olenik, who came into the game second in the conference in scoring (19.9 points per game), was held scoreless until late in the third quarter. The sophomore guard finished with 10 points.

Bowdoin returns home on Tuesday to host Maine Maritime (16-3) in its last non-conference game of the season, before three weekends of back-to-back NESCAC games. By then, Phelps hopes the Polar Bears start peaking.

“I’m excited, though,” Phelps said. “I think this team also recognizes that they’re not as good as they can be yet, and so that really makes my life easy as a coach, when they’re focused on that process like that.”