For the Bowdoin men's basketball team, the path to the final weekend of the NESCAC Tournament has been guided by one principle - play each game like it's your last. Because for the Polar Bears' three captains, any game could be.
Those captains - guard Andrew Hippert, forward Andrew Sargeantson and center Jordan Fliegel - have come together to lead Bowdoin to its best season ever. The Polar Bears are 20-5 heading into the NESCAC's final four this weekend, as an 83-50 blowout of Bates last weekend put them in the program's first-ever conference semifinal game. They've sent a clear message - this is their year.
"With us three, there's a sense of urgency," Hippert said. "Each game, knowing that you're one game away from it possibly being your last - especially now, at tournament time - we've really established a sense of living in the moment. Just enjoy each game and each practice and don't take anything for granted.
"After last year when we got knocked out of the tournament, it was a really tough loss, a really hard feeling. So me and Jordan and Sarge, we sat down and said, 'We don't ever want to feel like this again.'"
So after six straight first-round NESCAC exits leading up to this season, the Polar Bears finally broke through this year against their archrival Bobcats. The win was especially sweet for the seniors, who entered the weekend 1-8 against Bates over their four-year careers, including a pair of losses earlier this season.
The Polar Bears had a one-point lead in the teams' second meeting with just 12 seconds to play, but the Bobcats came back to steal the win. In round three, however, Bowdoin left no doubt. The Bears went on a 35-8 run in the first half, slamming the door on Bates' season and improving their own record to 20-5 - the first 20-win season in Bowdoin history.
"The [second] Bates game was our last regularly scheduled home game," Sargeantson said. "After we lost that, it was really upsetting for all three of us, especially because we thought we had the game in hand ... Obviously we were hyped [for the third]. We lost to them the first two games, and we really wanted that third one to get the monkey off our backs, so to speak."
Bowdoin took care of business in a hurry. Hippert shot the lights out in the first half, draining five threes and piling up 21 points before the break. The entire Bates team had 18.
"He was great," Fliegel said of Hippert. "He was on fire - he's a great shooter, and great shooters can get hot. From the start of the game, he was feeling it - everything he was throwing up was going in."
Hippert finished the game with 28 points; Fliegel added 14 and junior Kyle Jackson chipped in 10. But it was on the other end where the Polar Bears really shined, eliminating the defensive woes that characterized their first two meetings with Bates.
"The biggest difference was our defense," Sargeantson said. "In the third game, we didn't give them anything, any open looks."
Bobcats rookie phenom Brian Ellis was held to 12 points, and their leading scorer, senior tri-captain Bryan Wholey, shot 2-for-11 for eight points, only his third time in single digits all season. Hippert gave the credit to his teammate Sargeantson.
"Sarge would get my vote for Defensive Player of the Year in the NESCAC," Hippert said. "He always guards the best player on every team we play. Whether it's a league game or not, he's always up to that task. Without him, we wouldn't be where we are right now."
Where they are now is staring down an Amherst team that hasn't lost a NESCAC game in over a year. The Lord Jeffs lost last year's NESCAC final 70-69 to Williams; now they're back in the league's final four, sitting pretty at 23-2 overall and 9-0 in the league.
For Sargeantson and Fliegel, the team's two leading rebounders, the Jeffs will be imposing. They're up against a threesome of dominant big men in seniors Kevin Hopkins, Fletcher Walters and Brandon Jones, along with classmate Matt Goldsmith off the bench, a front-line core they've gotten to know all too well over the past four years.
"I've always played well against their bigs," Fliegel said. "But I'm six-five, and Hopkins is six-ten. The thing about them is they're big across the board - they're six-ten, six-eight, six-seven. Even their shooting guard [junior Brian Baskauskas] is six-six. It's a big lineup, and our front line is six-five, six-four, six-three."
That doesn't mean this Bowdoin team won't be up to the test. Fliegel had 20 points and six rebounds in an 85-79 loss at Amherst Feb. 2, and he'll be eager for another chance in Saturday's rematch.
"Jordan may be a little undersized, but he's one of the toughest kids that I've ever played with," Hippert said. "He doesn't back down from anybody. I'm glad that he's on my side because I wouldn't ever want to play against him."
If Sargeantson, Fliegel and Jackson, along with their sixth man, 6-foot-6 sophomore Mark Phillips, can shut down Amherst's big four, the Polar Bears could land the upset of the top-seeded Lord Jeffs. That would bring the Bears one step closer to an NCAA berth - it's a possibility, but not one that this team's going to dwell on.
"Beating Amherst would be great for our tournament resume, but we can't worry about that," Sargeantson said. "We can't really worry about what we can't control. We just have to play the game and hope for the best."
So it all comes down to this. For a team that was 15-10 last year, 20-5 is a big step. Come Saturday, we'll know what it means - a mere 20-win wonder, or something more. The Polar Bears are in the hunt for the Div. III Big Dance, their first trip since 1999 and third ever. Here comes their biggest test yet - and they're readier than ever.
"From the start of this year, with the combination of who we brought back - not just the seniors, but we brought back everyone on our bench too - we felt like we had a much improved team from last year," Fliegel said. "We really felt like we had a good chance. Going into this year, we really thought this was going to be our year."
