Courtesy Bowdoin Sports Information

Box Score

BRUNSWICK, Maine - The Bowdoin College women's basketball team reclaimed the NESCAC Championship after a one-year respite, defeating Amherst 49-46, for the Polar Bears' eighth conference championship on Sunday afternoon. The Polar Bears (23-4) earn the NESCAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament while Amherst (25-2) will likely receive an at-large bid when pairings are announced on NCAA.com at 11:00 a.m. on Monday.

The Polar Bears never trailed in Sunday's contest, but could never put the Jeffs away as defense effort ruled the day. Three-pointers by Jill Henrikson and Caitlin Hynes gave Bowdoin a nine-point lead, 15-6, seven minutes into the game. Amherst chipped away at the lead later in the period, using a quick 6-0 spurt, keyed by back-to-back hoops from Jaclyn Daigneault, to close the gap to two points, 21-19, with 6:14 left. The teams traded buckets for the remainder of the period as the host Polar Bears carried a slim 26-24 edge into the break.

Early in the second half, Amherst was able to tie the game at 29 when Kim Fiorentino connected on one of two free-throws. But Bowdoin responded with a key 12-2 run to take a 10-point lead with six minutes to play. Maria Noucas sparked the surge with a pair of running jumpers and Alexa Kaubris buried a three-pointer to give Bowdoin a 45-35 edge with 6:14.

But the reigning NESCAC champs refused to go quietly, chipping away over the next four minutes. Bowdoin went cold, missing seven straight shots and Amherst used a 9-0 run to close the gap. When Shannon Finucane connected on a jumper with 2:08 to play, the Jeffs had drawn to within 45-44.

A lengthy possession ensued for Bowdoin, as the Polar missed a pair of shots and grabbed both offensive boards. Jill Henrikson hit a pair of free throws to push the lead to 47-44 with 1:35 to play. Finucane replied with two free throws for Amherst that trimmed the lead to one point with 1:08 to go.

After a Bowdoin turnover, Amherst had a chance to take their first lead of the game with under a minute to play. But Fiorentino missed a baseline three-pointer and Sabrina Cote clutched the rebound. Cote connected on both freebies to give the Polar Bears a 49-46 lead with 14 seconds to play. Finucane missed a late three-pointer and Amherst could not get off another shot before time expired.

Daigneault led all scorers with 22 points while grabbing 14 rebounds in addition to three blocks. No other Amherst player saw double figures and the Jeffs only got four points from the bench. Bowdoin was led by 13 points from Hynes and 11 from Henrikson. Bowdoin forced 18 turnovers on the afternoon and scored 18 points off those miscues. With six assists on the day, Maria Noucas tied Sarah Barton's NESCAC Tournament record with 21. Other tournament records included Lem Atanga McCormick's seven blocks, Bowdoin's team rebound average of 50.0 per game and Amherst's field goal percentage defense (24.0).

The tournament championship is Bowdoin's eighth overall and first under head coach Adrienne Shibles. The Polar Bears won every tournament from 2001-07 while Amherst earned the crown in 2008.

2009 NESCAC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Quarterfinals - Saturday, Feb. 21 at Higher Seeds
at No. 1 Bowdoin 85, No. 8 Williams 52
at No. 2 Amherst 77, No. 7 Colby 36
at No. 3 Tufts 71, No. 6 Wesleyan 57
No. 5 Trinity 76, at No. 4 Bates 71

Semifinals - Saturday, February 28 at Bowdoin
at No. 1 Bowdoin 74, No. 5 Trinity 56
No. 2 Amherst 49, vs. No. 3 Tufts 46

Championship - Sunday, March 1
at No. 1 Bowdoin 49, No. 2 Amherst 46

2009 NESCAC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Quarterfinals - Saturday, February 21
3:00 p.m. at Higher Seeds
No. 8 at No. 1
No. 7 at No. 2
No. 6 at No. 3
No. 5 at No. 4

Semifinals - Saturday, February 28
at Highest Remaining Seed
2:00 p.m./4:00 p.m.

Championship - Sunday, March 1
12:00 p.m.

Format
The top eight teams in the conference will qualify for the NESCAC Basketball Championship.  First round games will be conducted on Saturday, February 21, 2008 with the semifinals and championship games conducted on Saturday, February 28 and Sunday, March 1, respectively.  The tournament champion will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. 

Seeding
Seeding will be based on final conference standings of round robin play.  The top four seeds will host quarterfinal games with the number one seed drawing the number 8 seed, the 7th seed will play at the 2nd seed, the 6th seed will play at the 3rd seed, and the 5th seed will play at the 4th seed.  Teams will be re-bracketed with the highest remaining seed after quarterfinal action hosting both the semifinal and final rounds.

Pairings
Pairings will be announced Saturday, February 14.

Tie Breaking Procedures
Ties will be broken as follows:

Head-to-head result (if teams play each other more than once during the regular season, the game that appears on the league schedule will be the game that is counted).

If teams tied during the regular season, or there is a 3-way or more tie, the following tie breaking procedure will be used:

• Best record among tying teams, against one another (head-to-head).
• Most conference wins (in games that are part of the conference schedule and count toward league standings).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against top 4 teams (including all teams at the 4th spot).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against top 8 teams (including all teams at the 8th spot).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against conference teams in rank order.
• Comparisons shall be made one team at a time starting with the highest ranked team.
• If the tie remains after comparing results against the highest ranked team, the results against the next team in rank order shall be used. This process is continued until a winner is determined.
• Coin flip (or similar random action involving all tied teams).

Note: In case of ties among three or more schools, the criteria above will be applied in order until a team is (or teams are) separated.  At that point, the process begins anew (returning to the first criteria) with the remaining teams.  The process is continued until the tie is eventually broken.  In cases where only a random action will break the tie of three or more teams, the random action will be applied to all teams involved in the tie.  For example, if three teams are tied and only a random action (pulling names out of a hat) will break the tie, each name will be pulled and seeded in order of being pulled.  Also, in the event that there are two (or more) groups of teams tied at different spots in the standings and the only criteria left that can be used to break those ties is a coin flip/random action, the coin flip/random action used to break the tie of one group (to put teams in rank order) will not affect the tie breaking procedures of the other group(s) of tied teams.