GORHAM – To be continued.
Two of the nation’s consensus top three NCAA Division III women’s basketball teams had their sneakers planted in November but at least one eye on March on Tuesday night, with the University of Southern Maine dodging numerous counterpunches from Bowdoin College for a 64-55 victory at Hill Gymnasium.
Twenty-some games and three months of good health remain before the regional powerhouses can contemplate a rematch with national championship implications. But given the quality of this early-season clash, it’s hard to imagine the bipartisan, standing-room-only crowd not being treated to some Sweet 16 or Elite Eight madness, probably in the same building.
“That win possibly determined home-court advantage in the NCAA playoffs,” said USM junior point guard Katie Sibley. “That’s a quote from Coach (Gary) Fifield. I don’t want him to accuse me of plagiarism.”
Southern Maine (4-0) hasn’t dropped a regular-season game since a loss at Bowdoin last Nov. 30 by a virtually flip-flopped 63-55 score.
All five veteran starters, particularly two certain All-America candidates, were sensational as the Huskies made their pitch for state bragging rights. Ashley Marble scored 15 of her game-high 21 points in the second half, including eight from the free-throw line, and racked up 15 rebounds. Megan Myles added 16 points and seven boards.
Sibley (10 points) was steady. Donna Cowing (eight points, three steals) was a pain in the Polar Bears’ neck defensively. And Katie Frost hit what was arguably the clincher, slicing through the Bowdoin frontcourt, leaning awkwardly toward the basket and banking one off the window to give USM a six-point lead with 1:42 remaining.
“That was a huge boost for us,” Myles said of the hoop by the senior guard, Frost, whose only other two buckets were 3-pointers. “It gave us the intensity we needed to come down and make a stop on Bowdoin’s next trip down the floor.”
The Huskies never trailed, but Bowdoin (3-1) never gave them a smidgen of security, either. Southern Maine led 11-2 in the first half before the Polar Bears pulled within a point on two different occasions.
After USM extended a 25-20 halftime edge to 43-32 with 13:05 left, Bowdoin twice trimmed the deficit to three. And when Marble knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the arc, Marisa Berne answered with her fourth trey of the night to make it 58-54 with 2:14 to go.
Julia Loonin led Bowdoin with 15 points and matched Berne with four from long distance. Berne finished with 14. USM’s defensive concentration on Bowdoin’s talented forwards, Eileen Flaherty and Justine Pouravelis, limited them to 11 and 9 points, respectively, and a combined 7-for-20 from the floor.
“We did everything. It’s just that when we had to keep them from making a big play, we didn’t,” Bowdoin coach Stefanie Pemper said.
“We made some big plays and kept knocking on the door, and then Katie Frost hits a running layup from six feet out. Somehow it gets through our forwards, and you’re like, OK.'”
USM struggled from the free-throw line (11-of-23) and didn’t have a starter shoot better than 50 percent from the field.
When the Huskies needed star power, however, they found it. Myles, Marble and Frost combined to outscore Bowdoin 14-10 in the final five minutes of regulation.
“Both of us kept the other team from running their offense. But I think it was a great game for the spectators,” Fifield said. “It was back-and-forth like a boxing match.”
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