Maddie Hasson of South Portland, who was instrumental in Bowdoin College’s drive to the Sweet 16, has been named the 2020 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Division III National Player of the Year.
The senior forward averaged 16.7 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists this season and ranked among the nation’s leaders with a .617 field-goal percentage. Hasson, a two-time Bangor Daily News All-Maine selection in 2015 (third team) and 2016 (first team), scored in double figures in 23 of Bowdoin’s 29 contests.
She led the second-ranked Polar Bears to their first New England Small College Athletic Conference title since 2009 and a berth in the NCAA Division III Sweet Sixteen (27-2 record) before the cancellation of the tournament because of concerns about the coronavirus.
Hasson, who tallied 10 double-doubles and finished seventh all-time at Bowdoin with 1,321 points, was at her best against the nation’s best. In eight games against ranked opponents and in postseason play, she averaged 21.0 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.3 steals and shot 56 percent.
On Dec. 30 at Chapman, she surpassed 1,000 career points with a career-high 37 points, just one shy of the school record.
Hasson, who was also named First-Team All-American by the WBCA, is the third Polar Bear to win the award, joining Eileen Flaherty (2007) and Kate Kerrigan (2018). Only one other Division III school, Amherst College, has had three different players win the honor.