In a tale of two halves, the Bowdoin College Polar Bears erased a 17-point deficit and captured its 14th win against the Plymouth State Men’s basketball team, 79-66. Bowdoin, who was PSU’s first non-conference game in almost a month, held an overall record of 13-6 going into Wednesday’s matchup, while Plymouth (7-13 overall, 2-7 LEC) was coming off their biggest win of the year, upsetting Eastern Connecticut last Saturday. Polar Bear junior guard Lucas Hausman had a game-high 32 points in the win, while teammate and forward John Swords finished with 19 boards and 11 rebounds.
From the very beginning, it looked as though Plymouth State hadn’t left the court since the Eastern Connecticut game; shooting over 65% at the half from the field and a near 55% from the floor, and had an outrageous 47 points at halftime. Mentioned previously, Coach Andrew Novick had stated that one of the biggest things that his team needed was to have the ability to move the ball well and make room for open shooters. The scoring started with an easy inside bunny by Ernie Johnson (Springfield, Mass.). Curtis Arsenault (Berlin, N.H.) connected on a three-pointer, and from there scoring for Plymouth was as easy as a knife through hot butter; PSU went on a 22-10 run, sparked by threes from both Arsenault and freshman Brian Boulay (Keene, N.H.), and a layup off a steal by Alex Burt (Dover, N.H.). Johnson had eight points in the run, including a pair of threes, and Hausman contributed a quiet eight out of 10 points for the Polar Bears. Things started to get sloppy in the closing minute of the first half; with 30 seconds on the game clock and 10 seconds on the shot clock, a three-point attempt was forced and Bowdoin converted on a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 15. Plymouth had time left for one more basket, but a series of near turnovers kept them from getting a shot off, and went into the half with a 47-32 lead.
Looking good, right?
Wrong.
Bowdoin totally dominated the second half, in almost every aspect. The first three possessions for the home team all resulted in a bled out shot clock, and a forced attempt before a violation was called. They kept a double digit lead for the first five minutes, but the end of the court nearest the exit had some sort of black magic cast upon it that didn’t allow for the shooting percentage to drop below 65%. The pack of Polar Bears exploded for 47 second half points (eerily similar to Plymouth’s first half) and shot 68% from the floor, led by Hausman who finished with 20 points in the second half. Plymouth’s hot hand was as chilly as the Pemi River, dropping just under 23% from the floor. They kept the lead, however, until there were six minutes left in the contest, where Bowdoin capped off the game on a 19-6 run.
Plymouth had five players in the double-digit scoring column; Arsenault, Boulay, Johnson, and Burt all finished with 12, while sophomore forward Jack Preston (Nashua, N.H.) finished quietly with 10 points.
The Panthers will need all the support they can get from the home crowd this Saturday, as they host Western Connecticut at 3 PM.