The Bowdoin College women’s basketball team from Brunswick was seeking its first NCAA Division III national championship on Saturday night against NESCAC rival Amherst College of Massachusetts and was trailing by just three points with 1:49 left in the third quarter.
Then the roof caved in on the Polar Bears.
The Mammoths scored 20 unanswered points as Amherst went on to capture its second straight NCAA Division III championship and third in eight years, 65-45, at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minnesota.
It was Amherst’s 66th consecutive victory as the Mammoths capped a 33-0 season.
Bowdoin wound up 29-3 with two of the losses coming to Amherst.
Amherst edged the Polar Bears 49-45 in Amherst on Jan. 27.
Amherst’s six-foot junior guard Emma McCarthy poured in 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, both game-highs to spark the Mammoths.
She had 10 of her points during the decisive 20-0 run as the Mammoths held Bowdoin scoreless for 8:42.
Bowdoin missed 13 shots and turned the ball over three times during the Amherst rally.
McCarthy triggered the run with a free throw with 1:24 left in the third period to make it 40-36, and Hannah Fox closed out the quarter with a pair of free throws.
Fox opened the fourth quarter by converting her own rebound, and McCarthy produced a traditional three-point play to extend the lead to 47-36 with 9:08 to go.
Fox fed McCarthy for a layup 1:04 later, and McCarthy again scored on a drive to the basket with 6:18 remaining.
Hannah Hackley sandwiched baskets around a McCarthy free throw as the lead swelled to 56-36 with 3:42 remaining.
Following a free throw by McCarthy and two more by Fox, Lydia Caputi finally snapped Bowdoin’s drought with a three-pointer with 3:07 remaining.
But the game had already been decided.
Amherst outrebounded Bowdoin 45-30 and shot 48 percent from the floor (24-for-50), compared with Bowdoin’s sub-standard 27.3 percent showing (15-for-55).
Bowdoin shot 45.4 percent from the floor on the season and averaged 79.8 points per game.
McCarthy also had two steals and an assist, and Fox finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Hackley had eight points, nine rebounds, four assists, three blocked shots and a steal, and Madeline Eck provided Amherst with eight points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. She also blocked a shot.
Cam Hendricks chipped in with six points, three rebounds and an assist.
Senior guard Lauren Petit led Bowdoin with 12 points. She also had two rebounds and two steals.
Taylor Choate had nine points and a game-high five assists to go with two rebounds and a steal.
Brunswick’s Caputi wound up with seven points, three rebounds, three blocked shots and a steal, and Kate Kerrigan, the Division III National Player of the Year, supplied six points, eight rebounds, two assists, a steal and a blocked shot.
Abby Kelly had five points, five rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block, and Bangor’s Cordelia Stewart grabbed eight rebounds to go with four points, two blocks and a steal.
Kerrigan, Petit and Caputi are the only seniors for coach Adrienne Shibles’ Polar Bears.
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