BRUNSWICK – Less than 24 hours after an emotional come-from-behind win, even Stefanie Pemper was unsure how her team would summon the energy to do it all over again.

“It was weird just getting here, meeting in the locker room, warm ups and during introductions, it just came so fast,” said the Bowdoin women’s basketball coach. “I know I sort of felt that myself. I told the team right before it started ‘Let’s get off to a fast start, take it right to them.’ I was kind of saying that for my own sake. If I was on the court, I would need to be reminded of that. It’s been an emotional weekend, and it just seemed like ‘Here we go again.'”

An early nine-point deficit was no surprise after such a quick turn-around, but the Polar Bears showed no signs of sluggishness after that. Bowdoin quickly righted itself, established its inside game and wore Scranton down with a strong second half in a 71-58 win in Saturday’s NCAA Division III Sectional Tournament final.

“Points, points, points – 71 of them,” said Pemper. “Look at the shooting percentage (52 percent overall). The second day after a tough USM game, I would never have predicted that we’d shoot the ball that well. I can’t imagine playing a better game to be honest. As a coach, it is so rewarding on the biggest game of the year, your team plays as good as it can play.”

After losing in the Elite Eight the last two years, the unbeaten Polar Bears (29-0) earned their first trip to the Final Four. They’ll play next Friday and Saturday in Norfolk, Virginia. Despite the early deficit, the Polar Bears established its dominance inside. Bowdoin got 17 points and nine rebounds from Eileen Flaherty, 14 points and eight rebounds from Alison Smith. When Justine Pouravelis had to sit with foul trouble, Erika Nickerson came off the bench and scored 15 points and had eight rebounds.

“A few of those shots were definitely gift-wrapped for me by our point guards,” said Nickerson. “Otherwise, we all overachieve every now and then. It’s nice when that big game comes at the right moment.”

Bowdoin settled into the game when it began working the ball into the post. It was the Polar Bears’ plan from the outset.

“We thought we could post up their guards, and we thought we could post up their posts,” said Pemper, whose club had a 39-29 edge on the boards. “We beat it to death, to the point where I thought my guards might worry that I didn’t want them to take outside shots.”

Bowdoin scored 10 straight points to erase the early Scranton advantage. A jumper by Nickerson and a rebound by Smith put Bowdoin up for the rest of the half, but Scranton managed to stay within reach, trailing 27-25 at the half.

The second half was a different story. Back-to-back turn-around shots by Flaherty and Smith opened the half as the Polar Bears kicked its offense into high gear. Bowdoin shot 62 percent in the second half. While Scranton tried to defend down on the post players, Lora Trenkle took over. She had 10 of her 13 points in the second half and had four assists, helping to break open a 36-30 game

“I think they were doing a really good job playing me man-to-man the whole game,” said Trenkle. “In that case, it leaves other players open. That’s the beauty of our team. Everybody can score.”

Copy the Story Link