BRUNSWICK, ME. -- Morrell Gymnasium continued to be a house of horrors for the Williams College women's basketball team Friday night as the Ephs saw their seven-game win streak snapped by Bowdoin, 62-53.
Williams has not won at Morrell since February 5, 1999. The Ephs fell to 19-2 overall, 5-1 in the conference. They will play at Colby Saturday at 4 p.m. Bowdoin improved to 17-4, 3-3 in NESCAC action.
Sophomore Grace Rehnquist led Williams with 19 points. Katie Bergeron led Bowdoin with 12, followed by Jill Henrikson at 11 and Colleen Sweeney with 10. Claire Beacher finished with 13 points and eight rebounds for the Ephs.
The Ephs trailed by 12 points at the half, but rallied to tie the game twice in the second half as Rehnquist and Brunswick native Claire Baecher combined to score 19 of the Ephs' first 23 second-half points.
"I was happy with how we fought back, but disappointed in how we lost our composure so quickly early on," Ephs' head coach Pat Manning said. "In the second half, our defensive intensity was much better, we got some stops, we were able to push the tempo and get some baskets in transition."
Trailing 38-24 with 17:08 left in the contest, Williams rallied behind eight straight points by Rehnquist to make it a 40-34 deficit. After a Bowdoin timeout, Baecher drained a three-pointer from the top of the key to half the deficit, and after a pair of blocks from Baecher, Rehnquist nailed a game-tying three-ball from the top of the key with 12 minutes left to make it 40-40.
Baecher's two free throws with 10:20 left tied the game again at 42, but two free throws from Bowdoin's Jill Henrickson put the hosts back up again, 44-42. A nice drive by Bowdoin's Kaitlin Donahoe extended that lead to four, and two Alexa Barry free throws made it 48-42 Bowdoin with 7:14 left.
The Ephs got as close as two at 50-48 after that, but could never get even with Bowdoin.
"To Bowdoin's credit, they came up with some big plays when they had to," Manning said. "We had some chances to take the lead but we just couldn't get it done."
The first half was a mass of turnovers and missed shots for the Ephs, who went just 7 of 28 (25 percent) from the floor and turned the ball over 12 times.
Williams jumped out to a 5-0 lead just 1:24 into the contest, but after a Baecher jumper in the paint at 18:36, would not score again until a Greenberg drive to the basket 4 minutes and 16 seconds later. By that time it was 11-7 Bowdoin, and the Polar Bears were just getting warmed up.
After the Greenberg drive, Bowdoin's Colleen Sweeney drained a three-pointer from the right elbow and moments later, teammate Amy Hackett duplicated that feat from the same spot to make it 17-7 Polar Bears.
The Ephs climbed back to within five twice, once after a Chessie Jackson three-ball and once after a Greenberg trey, the latter coming with 6:23 remaining that made it 22-17 Polar Bears. But after a slew of nice defensive stands, the Ephs couldn't capitalize, missing five straight shots.
A late three-pointer by Henrickson -- Bowdoin shot 50 percent (6 of 12) from the three-point line in the second half, send the Ephs into the locker room down 31-19.
