VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -Having overcome deficits of nine and 11 points in its last two games, Bowdoin didn’t blink at a one-point halftime deficit in Friday night’s NCAA Division III semifinal.
The Polar Bears outlasted an undermanned Wisconsin-Stevens Point team for a 64-59 victory.
“That was probably the most physically demanding game that we’ve had to play,” Bowdoin coach Stefanie Pemper said.
The top-ranked Polar Bears hope to have enough left for when they meet 11th-ranked Wilmington (26-6) at 2 p.m. today for the national championship. The game will be broadcast locally on FoxSports New England and is the first national championship game Bowdoin has ever participated in in any sport.
The Polar Bears improved to 30-0. With a win today, they’ll become the first team to finish the season with a perfect record since Washington University did it in 2000.
Lora Trenkle led Bowdoin with 23 points. Amanda Nechuta paced Stevens Point with 25.
In a see-saw game that saw 13 lead changes, Trenkle’s jumper with 1:54 remaining put Bowdoin on top for good at 58-57. Nechuta and Bowdoin’s Justine Pouravelis traded baskets in the next minute-and-a-half before Pouravelis and Trenkle hooked up on a deep pass and layup on an out-of-bounds play with 11 seconds left to give the Polar Bears a 62-59 lead.
UWSP (28-4) missed a trey to tie it with four seconds left and Trenkle capped the victory with a pair of free throws.
Bowdoin trailed by as much as seven in the first half, but whittled the deficit to one on an Alison Smith basket and a pair of Pouravelis free throws that made it 32-31 at halftime.
More importantly for the Pointers, freshman forward Nathalie Lechault was injured with three seconds left in the first half, depleting an already shortened bench even further.
Bowdoin took advantage of its fresher legs and led for much of the second half. The Pointers made just one field goal and four points over an eight-minute span as the Polar Bears seized a 48-42 lead with nine minutes.
Stevens Point shot 0-for-8 from beyond the 3-point arc in the second half, but was able to get its inside game going with Nechuta, who scored 15 of the team’s first 17 points in the half.
Bowdoin outrebounded UWSP, 27-11, for the game.
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