BRUNSWICK, Maine - The Bowdoin College women's basketball team held Mount Saint Mary College to a season-low in points in a 61-53 victory in the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament on Saturday evening at Morrell Gymnasium. The Polar Bears advance to their ninth "Sweet Sixteen" appearance where they will face Babson College at a site to be announced Sunday.
Mount Saint Mary finishes its season with a record of 26-3 and sees their 20-game winning streak come to an end with the defeat. The Knights are still looking for their first "Sweet Sixteen" appearance after making the second round on five occasions.
Kaitlin Donahoe enjoyed a tremendous game for Bowdoin, scoring a career-high 19 points and grabbing a career-best 10 rebounds. She also dished out four assists and connected on 8-of-9 from the free throw line. Bowdoin also got 14 points from Katie Bergeron and Ellery Gould scored 12 points off the bench, including three three-pointers. The Knights were paced offensively by 13 points from Jen Mocanu and 10 from Amanda Horvers.
Bowdoin jumped out to an early 8-2 advantage but Mount Saint Mary's Mocanu singlehandedly kept her team in contention, scoring 11 of the Knights' first 14 points. The visitors were able to grab their first and only lead of the game when Kate Hartnett hit a spinning lay-up with 7:30 left in the period, but Bowdoin closed the half on a 15-1 run. Katie Bergeron fueled the intial 8-0 surge with a three-pointer to force a Knight timeout. Amy Hackett capped the run with a trifecta late in the stanza to give the hosts a 32-19 lead at intermission.
Mount Saint Mary's came out firing in the second half, and used a 17-5 run, sparked by a Charnelle Saint-Laurent three pointer, and were able to draw within one point (37-36) on a trifecta by Charneice McCullough with 11:04 to go. Gould stemmed the tide for Bowdoin with a baseline three-pointer and hoop-and-harm on the next possession to push the lead back to seven points, 43-36 with nine minutes remaining. Bowdoin pushed lead to double digits with under five minutes to play, but the Knights were able to trim the lead to five points after a Horvers three-pointer with under two minutes to play. The Polar Bears put the game on ice by nailing six free throws in the final 1:51 to seal the win.
Bowdoin held a 34-29 edge in rebounding and held Mount Saint Mary to 38% shooting for the game.
Sectional sites will be announced on Sunday. The meeting between Bowdoin and Babson will be the first for the squads since 2001. The other contest will feature foes familiar to the Polar Bears, as NESCAC Champion Amherst will play Muhlenberg, who bounced Bowdoin from the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
