Men's Basketball Falls to Bowdoin, 77-52

BRUNSWICK, Maine -- The Bowdoin College bench scored 48 points to lead the Polar Bear men's basketball team to a 77-52 non-conference victory over Bridgewater State University on Tuesday evening at Morrell Gymnasium.

Bowdoin has won six of its last seven outings and improves to 16-6 this year. Bridgewater State has its three-game win streak snapped and falls to 12-9 this season.

Will Hanley filled the stat sheet for Bowdoin, scoring 13 of his team-high 15 points in the second half while grabbing 12 rebounds to go with seven assists and five steals. A trio of players led the effort off the bench for the Polar Bears, as Keegan Pieri scored 12, Wyatt Littles added 11 and Justin Nowell scored nine points with 10 assists and four steals.

Anthony Fortes scored a game-high 18 in the setback for Bridgewater. Samuel Johnson added 10 points in the losing effort.

The Polar Bears never trailed in the game and used an 11-2 spurt, capped by a Littles' three-pointer to push the lead to double digits midway through the opening half. Bridgewater closed the gap to seven points, 22-15, late in the frame, but the hosts answered with an 8-0 run and extended their lead to 35-22 at the break.

Fortes scored all 10 of Bridgewater's points in a 10-2 run to open the second period that trimmed the Bowdoin lead to 39-32 with 17:41 to go. The Polar Bears slowly pulled away behind Hanley's 13-point second-half points and 51.5% shooting from the field in the stanza.

Bowdoin held a sizable 42-26 advantage in rebounding and forced 20 Bridgewater turnovers.