BRUNSWICK — All the numbers add up for the Bowdoin College women’s basketball team.

The Polar Bears are back in the Sweet 16.

Ready to confront a New England foe with a series of sixes in the height column of its roster and an intimidating zero in the loss category.

Seven players have averaged six points per game or better. Bowdoin banged out a 14-game winning streak in midseason and has won nine of its last 10.

And now, the most telling digit. Total NCAA Division III teams left standing in Maine, men or women, the second weekend in March: One.

Bowdoin is it. It isn’t the first time and probably won’t be the last.

“This group is really special,” Bowdoin coach Adrienne Shibles said. “There are a lot of leaders on the this team. They’ve made this season very enjoyable.”

You might even say it feels like being on Cloud Nine.

For the ninth time in the last 11 years, Bowdoin has advanced to the third round of the national tournament.

Bowdoin (24-5) will meet Babson (29-0) at 5 p.m. Friday in the first game of a Sweet 16 doubleheader at Amherst (Mass.) College.

Amherst faces Muhlenberg in the nightcap. The winners collide Saturday for a berth in the final four.

Babson and Bowdoin haven’t played since the 1999-2000 season — one year before Bowdoin began its run of tournament success. In fact, the Beavers didn’t play a single opponent from NESCAC, also home to Amherst, Colby and Bates and one of the top leagues in the Northeast.

“We’re not taking anything for granted. It’s the third round of the postseason. We know everybody at this point is good,” Shibles said. “They’re undefeated.”

Seven years ago, Bowdoin celebrated a perfect regular season, ultimately losing in the national championship game.

Even without that rarest of accomplishments in its corner, Babson would be easy to take seriously. Every member of its starting frontcourt stands at least six feet tall and has averaged over 15 points and eight rebounds per game.

Sarah Collins, a 6-foot-2 sophomore, and juniors Kathleen King (6-0) and Nicki Wurdeman (6-1) have combined for 130 blocked shots. Wurdeman, an All-America candidate, leads the trio with an 18.8 scoring average.

Bowdoin’s only two six-footers don’t start. But the Polar Bears, who held Mount St. Mary to a season-low 53 points in their second-round victory, embrace the sky-high challenge.

“A lot of our (overall) success has been fixated upon our success in the defensive end,” said Shibles, a 1991 graduate of Bates, where she was a 1,000-point scorer.

The Polar Bears are a phenomenal plus-171 in the turnover category. They have held opponents to 36 percent field goal proficiency and below 30 percent accuracy from 3-point range.

And unlike Babson, whose Big Three screams an obvious demand for attention, the defensive game plan against Bowdoin isn’t as cut-and-dried.

Old Town product Katie Bergeron (12.1 ppg) and Morse grad Jill Henrikson (11.2) are the leading scorers. But Nicole Coombes, Kaitlin Donohoe, Alexa Barry, Colleen Sweeney and Bangor’s Amy Hackett each share the same capabilities.

“Katie has played so well down the stretch. She was first-team all-conference,” Shibles said. “We’re a very balanced group. We like to spread around and distribute the ball.”

Seven different players have been the leading scorer in at least one game this season. Donahoe was the latest with a career-high 19 against Mount St. Mary.

Shibles also lauded the efforts of juniors Hackett and Ellery Gould in relief of Henrikson, who has missed the last games with a concussion.

“We are hopeful that she will be able to play,” Shibles said. “It’s one of those things where there are strict guidelines now. There’s a test she will have to pass.”

Kirsten Prue of Auburn is the team’s tri-county representative. Prue has appeared in 16 games, dishing out 26 assists.

Shibles is completing her third season after succeeding Stefanie Pemper, who took the job at Navy after guiding Bowdoin to nine consecutive years of 19 or more wins.

The beat goes on for the Polar Bears, who are 70-17 (.805) in Shibles’ tenure and will graduate only four seniors.

Next year’s roster will the first entirely recruited by Shibles.

“Our junior class is extremely talented and hard working. I’m so glad I get another year with them,” Shibles said. “I don’t even want to think about them being gone.”

Bowdoin will have at least one final weekend together before that countdown begins.

Two, if those numbers keep falling just right.

koakes@sunjournal.com

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