For much of the first half, neither Bowdoin nor Amherst could hold onto the lead, with both teams simply trading buckets and taking turns going on small runs. At the nine-minute mark, Brandon Jones ’08 broke a 15-15 tie with an impressive put-back dunk off of a missed three by captain and point guard Olson ’08. Bowdoin quickly answered, but Amherst then responded with a backdoor cut and an easy lay-up by senior Matt Goldsmith.
With 6:30 left, sophomore Steven Wheeler sank a three to extend an Amherst lead to 24-19, and it looked as if the Jeffs might start pulling away. The Polar Bears, however, battled back with an 8-0 run, taking the lead and then stretching it to seven. A three-pointer by Jones, though, stemmed Bowdoin’s momentum and as the first half came to a close, Amherst only trailed by six, 36-30.
At the start of the second half, Bowdoin immediately went on a 6-0 run, extending their lead to 12 and forcing a Jeff timeout. Despite their best attempts after the timeout, Amherst struggled to cut into Bowdoin’s lead. With 12 minutes left to play, Bowdoin still held a comfortable 14-point lead, 50-36.
Finally, the Jeffs caught a break, as Jones was fouled in the act of shooting, and the ball somehow managed to find its way into the hoop. Jones then sank the free throw to complete the three-point play. Not long after the free throw, senior Fletcher Walters got the fans of Lord Jeff Nation back into the game with a crowd-pleasing combo, swatting away a Bowdoin player on one end of the court and then sinking a mid-range runner on the offensive end to cut the deficit to single digits.
Despite these high points, however, the Jeffs still could not manage to draw even with Bowdoin. At the 7:48 mark, Amherst still trailed 56-45, and Head Coach Dave Hixon called a timeout. Following the timeout, the tides began to turn a bit. The Jeffs stepped up their defensive efforts and caused Bowdoin to come up empty on several trips down the court, and the Amherst offense capitalized. With 4:35 left on the clock, Olson was fouled and went to the line for two free throws. Sinking both, he closed the margin to 58-55. After another rejection by Walters on the defensive end, Wheeler hit his fourth three-pointer of the game to tie the score at 58.
Minutes later, the Jeffs grabbed the lead for the first time since late in the first half, going ahead 64-63 junior Brian Baskauskas’ three-pointer. On the next play, the Amherst defense held strong, forcing Bowdoin into a shot-clock violation. With time running down and a chance to extend the lead, however, an Olson turnover led to a fast break layup for Bowdoin that would become the game-winning points.
On the next possession, Baskauskas missed a runner, and Amherst was forced to start fouling. The Polar Bears, however, missed their foul shots, giving Amherst one last chance, but Olson’s buzzer-beating deep three-pointer rimmed out as time expired, giving Bowdoin a 65-64 victory.
Baskauskas led the Jeffs in scoring with 16, followed by 12 apiece from Wheeler and Olson. The statistic of the game may have been rebounding, though, and Bowdoin dominated it. In the first half alone, the Polar Bears out-rebounded the much larger Amherst squad, 20-10. Bowdoin’s upset of the Jeffs was the first loss at home for Amherst since Feb. 25, 2007—last season’s heartbreaking loss to Williams in the NESCAC final.
Despite Saturday’s loss, Amherst still received a number-one seed for the NCAA Tournament, which begins this weekend. The Jeffs have a first-round bye and will be hosting the winner of Moravian vs. John Jay in the second round on March 8.
Although it always hurts to lose, the Jeffs are hoping to take the lessons learned from Saturday’s defeat into the tournament with them.
“Give Bowdoin credit. They came ready to play, and they shot the ball very well in our gym,” said Baskauskas. “While losing is never good for a team, I think we can certainly learn from the loss.” Echoing the sentiment, Jones said, “I’m not a believer in ‘good losses,’ especially when it costs you something that you intensely desire, but there are certainly things to be learned from losses. So as long as we improve, they aren’t in vain.”
Having learned their lessons, however, perhaps the best thing the Amherst team can do is put the Bowdoin defeat behind them.
“What Bowdoin game?” asked Walters. “It’s all about the tournament now. Win or go home. It’s as simple as that.”