BRUNSWICK — St. Joseph’s College began the second half with a 13-0 run Tuesday night and rolled to a 77-58 victory against Bowdoin College in a nonconference men’s basketball game at Morrell Gymnasium.
It was a big win over a nationally ranked team for the Monks (3-3).
“Any win right now for any program is a confidence booster,” St. Joseph’s Coach Rob Sanicola said. “You hope to play well. Sometimes you lose and you play awesome. For this group, and we’re a young group, it was nice to see their effort was rewarded.”
It was the second consecutive loss for the Polar Bears, who opened the season with six straight wins to reach 16th in the D3 national poll.
“You’ve got to give them credit,” Bowdoin Coach Tim Gilbride said. “I thought they did a lot of things well. They shot well. They executed well. They took advantage of some things on our defensive end that we’re a little softer with. I thought they exposed us that way.”
The Monks, who shot 50 percent, connected on 10 of 21 3-point attempts.
Ian Mileikis of Auburn scored a game-high 25 points for St. Joseph’s. Darian Berry and Cheverus High graduate Jack Casale, a freshman, each had 15 points.
Jack Simonds of Falmouth led the Polar Bears with 19 points. Hugh O’Neil followed with 14, all in the first half. Liam Farley added 10.
St. Joseph’s held a 34-31 halftime lead after sinking six 3-pointers.
The Monks moved into a six-point lead with less than eight minutes remaining in the first half, but Simonds sank 3-pointers on successive possessions for Bowdoin.
St. Joseph’s started the second by scoring on six consecutive possessions. The Polar Bears, meanwhile, missed six shots and committed one turnover after another, and the Monks opened a 47-31 lead
“”We lacked confidence,” Gilbride said.
“Once things didn’t go well, we were pretty indecisive with what we needed to do on the offensive end.”
But the Polar Bears rallied.
A three-point play by Sam Grad and back-to-back 3-pointers by Farley made it 52-43 with 11:27 to play, but that as close as Bowdoin got.
St. Joseph’s again clamped down and held the Polar Bears to 30 points below their season average.
“Our defense has been what we’ve been trying to hang our hat on right now,” Sanicola said.
“Our effort. Our attention to detail … We just tried to make it tough for them. As long as their shots were contested and tough, we were happy.”
St. Joseph’s held a 34-30 edge in rebounds, limiting Bowdoin to six offensive rebounds, which is about half of the Polar Bears’ average.
“To our guys, that gave them a little confidence because they saw they can rebound against that size,” Sanicola said.
“Our guys did a great job of staying within themselves and then just paying attention to what was going on around them.”
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