BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott women's basketball team hosted #22 Bowdoin on Wednesday evening for their home opener. After being stuck at a stalemate, 27-27 at the half the nationally ranked Polar Bears outshot the Blue and Green 41-21 to take the 68-48 lead. The Gulls were led by a 15 point and eight rebound effort by senior Kayleen Whall (Foxboro, Mass.). Endicott drops to 1-2 while the Polar Bears improve to 2-1.
Endicott will take the court next on Saturday, November 22nd as they host non-conference opponent Emmanuel at 1:00 p.m. The Polar Bears will take the court next on Saturday as well as they start NESCAC action with a home game versus Bates at 2:00 p.m.
The first half was an absolute battle as both sides took runs and crashed the boards, leaving a 17-17 score entering halftime. In the opening minutes Bowdoin came out of the gates firing as they took a 10 point lead by the 16 minute mark.
Endicott would battle back as they carried a 14-point run to take over with an 18-10. During that impressive run, junior Nicole Catizone (Woburn, Mass.) rallied with two deep treys and supported by a pair of layups by Whall.
The Gulls kept working hard in the paint with huge efforts by junior Kelsey Cuddy (Madison, Conn.) and Whall as Endicott owned a 26-18 lead with just 4:49 to go in the half. The Polar Bears, senior Sara Binkhorst would shoot a spark on the scoreboard for Bowdoin after she scored seven straight points in just over a minute to make it a two point game with 3:34 to go in the half.
After a couple good jumpers from both sides the half ended with a 27-27 score.
The second half showed a different Polar Bears squad as they scored 20 more points than Endicott in the half by shooting an impressive 48.4% from long range and 45.5% from inside the arc. Bowdoin worked hard on their defensive end as they shut down the Gulls leading scorer, Whall by holding her to just eight points and Cuddy with three.
To start off the half both sides were going bucket for bucket holding the game to a tight three points until the 16 minute mark. The Polar Bears started inching away with a good trey by freshman Lauren Petit (Medfield, Mass.). The three-pointer started a short seven point run for Bowdoin to take a 42-33 lead.
Endicott worked to creep back up with two treys and a layup by freshman Gabriella Copolla (Watertown, Mass.) in a short span of two minutes. After Endicott cut the lead down to four the Polar Bears answered back with a 16 point run to take a 65-45 lead. For Bowdoin the deep run was led by Petit who put up an impressive eight points.
After a quick layup by Cuddy, Bowdoin would score another five straight points to hold on to the 68-48 victory.
Despite the loss the Blue and Green used a deep bench that put up 13 points while scoring 16 points on Bowdoin turnovers. Overall Endicott shot 59.3% from the line but dropped from the field in the second half to finish at 33.3%.
