Senior Liam Farley poured in 20 points, including four 3-pointers while grabbing eight rebounds as the Polar Bears dealt the 16th-ranked Continentals only their second loss of the season against 16 wins.
“We knew it was going to be a tight game, they’re 16-1 and ranked 16th in the country,” said Farley. “We knew we had to ‘D’ up, and if we were going to win this game, we had to get it done.”
The win was Bowdoin’s fourth win in a row, improving to 14-4 (3-2 NESCAC).
The first half played close, as neither team pulled away and had five lead changes throughout.
The visiting Continentals jumped out to an 11-7 lead behind Peter Hoffmann’s six points and a Tim Doyle 3- point basket six minutes into the contest.
But the home team came right back, and a trio of Jack Simonds 3-point baskets propelled the Polar Bears to an 18-11 lead (the largest either team had in the first half) just a few minutes later.
Hamilton picked up the pace, using its strength in the transition game to open up shooters and push Bowdoin back on to its heels.
“They really have five guys that can play the perimeter, so even their center comes out,” said Bowdoin coach Tim Gilbride. “They push and run and whoever gets it they’re ready to go, we had to be ready and our team did that tonight.”
Facing early foul trouble, Gilbride went to his bench, sending his scorer, Simonds, and presence underneath, Hugh O’Neil, to the bench.
Hamilton followed with a 21-9 run, capped by a Joe Pucci basket from behind the arc to take a 32-27 lead with 5:26 left in the half.
Despite shooting just 38- percent from the field in the opening half, Hamilton took a five-point lead into the locker room, 38-33.
“I thought we played good in the first half with the exception of a couple of poor decisions,” said Gilbride. “They’re a very good team and well-coached.”
Hoffmann led Hamilton with 10 first-half points, while Simonds paced the Polar Bears with 11. The Continentals held the first-half advantage in rebounds, 21-16.
Hoffmann’s jumper and another Pucci trey gave Hamilton its biggest lead of the night, 43-35 less than two minutes into the second half.
Scoring eight first-half points, Farley wasted no time entering the scoring column in the second half. Bowdoin answered with a 9-0 run of its own, sparked by a Farley trey, while its defense held Hamilton without a field goal over the next few minutes to regain the lead, 44-43.
“We talked about how tough they were in transition. If we could cut down on that a little bit and make it a half-court game,” said Gilbride. “We knew we would be more successful. Although in stretches, I think we did that more than we did in the first half.”
Hamilton regained the lead 45-44 on a Hoffmann layup, but the Polar Bears got back-to-back treys from Simonds and Jack Bors to take a 50-45 edge with a little over 12 minutes remaining.
Bowdoin did not relinquish the lead again despite Hamilton’s efforts to catch the Polar Bears. Hamilton made it close with under two minutes left, 64-63, but late free throws from Simonds and Farley iced the game for Bowdoin.
Despite being outrebounded 41-28, Bowdoin got big caroms from Farley and Sam Grad (four).
“Rebounding has always been a point of emphasis from the coaches,” said Farley.
“We sometimes lose our heads a little, especially on defensive rebounding because of lack of communication but I think we did a good job at that tonight.”
Simonds ended with 18 points (four treys), six boards and seven assists while O’Neil registered 12 points. Bowdoin finished at 45.2-percent (28-of-62) shooting for the game while Hamilton was just 23-of-63 at 36.5-percent. Bowdoin scored 20 of its points off 19 Hamilton turnovers.
“It was nice to see a nice game from Liam as well as some big shots from Simonds,” added Gilbride of his two leading scorers of the night.
Hoffmann lead Hamilton with a game-high 24 points and eight rebounds. Pucci and Kena Gilmour scored 12 and 11 points, respectively.
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