By Kalle Oakes,Staff Writer

Bowdoin College knew defense wouldn’t be to blame if the Polar Bears didn’t return to the NCAA Division III women’s basketball Final Four this winter.

Nobody mixed up its man-to-man with a variety of zones and frustrated top-flight opponents better than Bowdoin. Covering the other team like aluminum foil helped the Polar Bears atone for any offensive shortcomings.

Until Saturday night, that is.

Scranton’s Taryn Mellody nailed two 3-pointers in the second half, including one that broke Bowdoin’s heart with 20 seconds remaining, to give the host Royals a 49-43 in a tense sectional final at the raucous Long Center in Scranton.

Mellody, a 5-foot-11 sophomore, finished with 18 points and six rebounds to highlight a chess match in which neither of the nation’s consensus top two teams was warmer than 28 percent from the field.

No. 1 Scranton (27-2) avenged last year’s Elite Eight loss in Brunswick and advanced to the national semifinals in Norfolk, Va. The Royals meet Randolph-Macon of Ashland, Va., on Friday.

Bowdoin’s loss leaves Southern Maine as the last surviving team among Maine’s three elites in the nation’s top five. USM meets Springfield at 2 p.m. today in Gorham, with the winner drawing Millikin of Decatur, Ill., in the Final Four.

Sophomore Eileen Flaherty scored 14 points and hauled down eight rebounds for Bowdoin (26-3), which made its third straight appearance in the sectional final. The Polar Bears were national runner-up last March.

Flaherty shot 4-for-15 from the field. Bowdoin’s best perimeter shooters, Marisa Berne and Vanessa Russell, were a combined 0-for-11.

Scranton’s six-point lead at the finish was the thickest cushion of the night for either team. The teams combined for 13 lead changes, nine in the second half.

Bowdoin pulled ahead for the last time, 39-38, on Flaherty’s shot from a wild angle off a feed from Julia Loonin with 5:10 remaining.

Maura Kane, one of only two Scranton seniors, answered with two free throws. Kelly Lewandowski (nine points) put back a miss by Allison Matt to make it a three-point lead with 3:45 to go. And the run reached six straight points on Matt’s jumper with 2:27 left.

Bowdoin closed it to one with a minute to play on two Flaherty free throws and a second-chance hoop by Justine Pouravelis. But Matt made up for two crucial misses by swiping the ball from Bowdoin after a defensive rebound, and it set the stage for Mellody’s clinching trey.

Mellody and Tara Gemmel each added a free throw in the final 10 seconds.

Loonin scored 10 of her 12 points in the first half for Bowdoin, which stumbled to 23 percent from the field in the second half and wound up at 26 percent on the night.

The Polar Bears missed all 10 of their 3-point bids after intermission.

Bowdoin went five minutes without a point to start the game, but the Polar Bears put up two Loonin 3-pointers and baskets by Flaherty and senior Erika Nickerson to take a 10-5 lead with 12:50 left in the half.

Pouravelis protected a 23-21 halftime lead with a late put-back. She was a defensive pest, as always, but the junior was a held to two points after the break. Pouravelis notched a team-high 11 rebounds and blocked three shots.