Bowdoin College men’s basketball coach Tim Gilbride refers to 7-foot John Swords and 6-10 Maximilian Staiger as his “bigs,” along with 6-6 forwards Keegan Pieri and Nick Lenker.
With his Polar Bears trailing 33-24 at the half and getting outrebounded by the smaller Bates College Bobcats at Alumni Gymnasium on Thursday, the veteran Bowdoin leader challenged his team to get more physical.
“We can talk about X’s and O’s, we can talk about whether to play zone or whether to play man, but if we don’t stop them from getting offensive rebounds, we’re not going to win,” Gilbride said to his team at the half after his squad was outrebounded 18-10 in the opening frame, including a 9-1 deficit in offensive caroms, leading to 12 Bobcat second, and even third-chance points.
“We were playing defense great for 35 seconds, but not coming up with the offensive rebounds, and we knew that we could do much better than that,” said Staiger, who scored 12 of his 13 points after halftime and pulled down each of his five rebounds as Bowdoin hit the boards to the tune of a big 28- 14 edge over the final 25 minutes, finishing with a 38-32 advantage overall. “This is Bates College, a team we always want to beat. So, to come back and pick up a victory here is great for us.”
“We kind of got stagnant in the second half,” said Bates coach John Furbush. “In the first half, we were active with our offense, so we were difficult to box out. We were cutting and screening and getting good shots. The secondchance opportunities went away in the second half, and Bowdoin just out-toughed us in the second half.”
Big comeback
Down by 13 points, 39-26, with 18:34 remaining in regulation, Bowdoin found a rhythm on offense. Staiger grabbed a pair of offensive boards and put the ball through the cylinder to get Bowdoin to 48-43, and Swords relieved and followed suit, his second basket cutting the Bobcats’ advantage to 53-51. Lucas Hausman took a pass from Andrew Madlinger and nailed a 3-pointer to give Bowdoin a 54-53 lead with 6:34 remaining, completing a 28-14 run.
“We did a much better job overall in the second half, and our zone defense seemed to bother them a little bit,” said Gilbride, whose squad completes its first semester schedule tonight against rival Colby College at Morrell Gymnasium at 7 p.m. “When we are executing and taking advantage of the advantage our ‘bigs’ give us, we are a tough team to play, even though Bates remained aggressive throughout.”
The lead changed hands four times the rest of the way in the second half. With Bowdoin leading 58-55, Ed Bogdanovich hit a short jumper, followed by a 3-pointer from Mike Boornazian for a 60-58 Bates lead. Down 62-60 after Bogdanovich finished off a pin-point pass from gamelong standout Graham Safford (game-high 21 points, four assists, six rebounds), Bowdoin tied the game on a jumper by Pieri with 33 seconds remaining.
Bates had a chance to win it in regulation, but Mark Brust’s 35-foot jumper glanced off the front of the rim to send the contest to overtime.
The Bobcats led on three occasions in the extra session, the final time 68-66 when Safford drove to the basket for two points.
Bowdoin tied the game on a Pieri short-range jump shot, and Hausman gave the Polar Bears a 70-68 lead moments later. Brust tied it, but Bryan Hurley, who led Bowdoin with 17 points and six rebounds, put the Polar Bears in the lead for good with 11.2-seconds remaining, with Hausman closing things out with a pair of free throws to complete the 74-70 Bowdoin victory.
Pieri chipped in 12 points for Bowdoin, with Hausman adding 11.
The Polar Bears were 29-of- 59 (49.2 percent) from the floor and made good on 14-of- 16 free throws.
Bogdanovich had 12 points for Bates, with Brust and Boornazian chipping in 11 points each. The Bobcats shot 40.6-percent from the floor (26 of 64).
Bowdoin 74,
Bates 70, OT
At Alumni Gymnasium, Lewiston
Bowdoin — 24 38 12 — 74
Bates — 33 29 8 — 70
Bowdoin — Bryan Hurley 8-0-17, Matt
Mathias 1-2-4, Andrew Madlinger 2-4-9,
Keegan Pieri 6-0-12, Maximilian Staiger
4-5-13, Evan Kulak 0-0-0, Lucas Hausman 4-3-11, Marko Peraica 1-0-2, Nick
Lenker 1-0-2, John Swords 2-0-4. Totals
— 29-14-74.
Bates — Graham Safford 8-4-21, Sean
Cunningham 1-2-4, Mark Brust 5-0-11,
Luke Matarazzo 2-2-7, Ed Bogdanoich 5-
2-12, Derek Murphy 0-0-0, Mike Boornazian 4-0-11, Taylor Gartley 1-1-3, Billy Selmon 0-1-1, Mike Newton 0-0-0. Totals —
26-9-70.
3-point field goals — (Bow) Hurley,
Madlinger; (Bates) Safford 4, Brust,
Matarazzo, Boornazian 3.
Records — Bowdoin 4-2, Bates 3-5.
Next for the Polar Bears — Tonight at
home against Colby, 7 p.m.
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