LEWISTON – Bates guard Sarah Barton only made one field goal against second-ranked Bowdoin on Friday night, and it was a shot she admits she probably shouldn’t have taken.
Still, her pull-up jumper from the free throw line with 59 seconds to play gave the Bobcats the insurance they would need to pull out a 56-51 upset win over the visiting Polar Bears at a packed and stifling-hot Alumni Gymnasium.
“I was a little nervous,” said Barton, who watched her shot first clang off the back of the rim and float for what seemed like an eternity, before falling through. “That probably wasn’t the best shot for the time, but it just happened. I was saying in my head, Please go in, please go in.'”
After Barton made her shot, Bowdoin had ample time to mount a comeback, but resorted instead to fouling Bates forward Matia Kostakis. The 6-foot forward hit six in a row in the final minute of regulation, though, and was 13 of 14 from the stripe on the game as the Bobcats hung on for the win.
“We’ve been in close games before and we learned our lesson,” said Kostakis. “We knew they were going to foul so when I got it, I just stood there and let them do it.”
For Bowdoin, the loss comes amid a poor shooting effort. Julia Loonin and Marisa Berne, typically two of the better 3-point shooters in the NESCAC, went a combined 0-for-12 from beyond the arc, most of them uncontested.
“Let’s face it,” said Bates coach Jim Murphy, “Bowdoin shoots much better than that. I’d like to tell you it was all us, but I’m not so sure it was.”
Bowdoin coach Stefanie Pemper seemed almost bewildered after the game.
“We’re just not where we have to be as far as team confidence,” said Pemper. “We just can’t go that long without hitting a shot. I was amazed we were even still in this game.”
Even more confusing to Pemper were some of the final statistics.
“For Bates to score only 56 is shocking,” said Pemper. “For us to take more shots than they did, that’s even more shocking. Bates takes shots. That’s what they do.”
Kostakis had four field goals to go with her 13 free throws to lead Bates with 21 points. Meg Coffin managed eight more for the Bobcats, while Mary Hart and Kyla DeCato each had key 3-pointers in the second half.
Eileen Flaherty led the Polar Bears and all scorers with 24 points, which put her over the 1,000-point mark for her career. She is just the 10th Bowdoin woman to reach that milestone.
Both teams struggled from the field early, but Bates took the lead with a 12-0 run bookended by four points from Kostakis. Bowdoin clawed back to within two with 1:02 to play in the half and finished three back at the break.
In the second, Bowdoin, buoyed by Flaherty, held the Bobcats without a field goal for more than five minutes and took a three-point lead, but with such poor shooting from the perimeter, Bates was still in the game.
The Bobcats grabbed the lead for good with 7:40 to play on an Annie Whiting basket from underneath the net.
“There has to be an element of luck in all of this,” said Murphy. “They are an excellent 3-point shooting team, and they just didn’t have that going tonight.”
The loss is just Bowdoin’s second of the year, with the other coming to No. 1 University of Southern Maine back in November. The loss also ends the Polar Bears’ 31-game conference winning streak and extends the Bobcats’ home win streak to 16 games.
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