BOW – Coe-Brown was all over the court offensively and defensively and put in the work for its first playoff win since reaching the quarterfinals during the 2020-21 season. On Wednesday night, away from home, the 10th-seeded Bears ended their drought with a big upset over No. 7 Bow, 54-46, in the opening round of the Division II girls’ basketball tournament.

Senior guard Hannah Meehan led the charge for the Bears (9-10) with 13 points and five rebounds, but the win did not rest solely on her shoulders. She was one of four Bears players to score nine or more points and one of multiple Bears to haul in four or more rebounds in the win.

“It feels great. We’ve never gone to the second round in the four years I’ve been here, and it just feels amazing,” Meehan said after the win.

The game was close the whole way through.

Bow (13-6) took its largest lead of the night at the end of the first quarter, 13-7, but the Bears adjusted their defense piece by piece throughout the game. Coe-Brown junior guard Maddison Taylor came out with intensity in the second quarter, scoring six of her 11 points on the night.

Bow was steady offensively to keep its lead going into half, 23-22. The Bears missed quite a few shots that would have put them ahead but did not put their heads down.

“We came together as a team for this win,” Taylor said. “We’ve been practicing Saturdays, Sundays, every day together. Coming in together, just making each other better.”

Halfway through the season, after a tough loss at home to Lebanon, Coe-Brown head coach Joe Vachon said his team had struggled with consistency and injuries. The injuries had derailed the chemistry on the court, even if it was strong off it, and stringing together good performances was difficult.

Meehan, one of the team’s captains, said that she thought the Bears had to work harder in practice if they wanted to improve after that loss. That’s exactly what they did.

The team put in extra effort in the gym, and even though the Bears went on to lose five and only win two after that, it was enough to earn the 10th seed in D-II.

Of those five defeats, the last two were one-point losses to Pelham and Pembroke.

This was a wake-up call for the Bears, who shifted their focus to their defense to give themselves more chances to keep leads.

“These girls decided like, we want to practice harder. They committed to practice and now, being healthy, we’re playing to our full potential,” Vachon said.

“I feel we’ve had to go through that journey of those tough losses and playing tough teams to win tonight. We didn’t fall apart at the end. We kept our composure.”

Coe-Brown grew increasingly confident in its zone defense against Bow. Meanwhile, in the third quarter, sophomore guard Emma LaPierre scored a go-ahead layup to put her team ahead 38-37.

As the clock wound down, Bow attempted a long shot that was decisively swatted away by sophomore forward Tara Houle, and the momentum shifted. The Bears managed to keep the Falcons at bay throughout the fourth period. and the hard work paid off.

Coe-Brown will now travel to No. 2 Milford on Saturday at 7 p.m. for a quarterfinal. The Bears only lost by five points (47-42) to Milford less than a month ago, and if the defense steps up again, the Bears could give the Spartans trouble.

Vachon added that with a fully healthy and versatile squad, the Bears have a chance against anyone when everyone is putting in the effort they did against Bow.

“We struggled a bit at the beginning of the season and towards the middle, but I think we worked really hard in practice and we deserve this one a lot,” said LaPierre. “We gotta keep up the good defense, keep up the rebounding, and really play our best.”

For the Falcons, this loss hurt. It was Bow’s first playoff appearance since falling short in the D-II championship in 2021-22, when many of the seniors had just joined the team. The Falcons’ promising year came to a surprising close at home against a team they had beaten comfortably before winter break.

Senior guard Bry Szepan and freshman guard Peyton Vaughn led the team offensively, with 14 and 19 points, respectively. The Falcons missed 13 free throws that could have changed the game; they also most struggled on offense down the stretch. Bow caught up to the Bears on the boards, but the ball movement that characterized its success in the first half was disrupted, and Bow had its lowest-scoring quarter of the night.

The difference in experience and intensity was the biggest difference according to Bow head coach Cassidy Emerson.

Even though Bow had a better regular-season record, the Bears had lost repeatedly in the prelims and did not falter this time.

Emerson embraced many of her seniors as they walked off the court and spent a long time talking to the team as the reality of the end hit them in the locker room.

She said that the love for the game and the dedication they brought to every sport they played is something that she hopes her seniors carry with them and can look back upon with appreciation.

“The senior group that we had this year was great for them – great leadership,” Emerson noted. “They learned a lot, they took them under their wing, and I think that next year we’re going to have some other girls step up and we have some young talent coming in.”

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com.