Bowdoin’s Sydney Jones goes up for a basket between Smith’s Jane Loo, left, and Jazmyn Washington during the third round of the NCAA Division III women's basketball tournament Friday in Brunswick. Smith won, 53-47. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

BRUNSWICK — A dream season for the Bowdoin College women’s basketball team came to an end Friday in all-too-familiar fashion.

The previously undefeated Polar Bears fell on their home court to Smith College and a resurgent Hannah Martin, 53-47, in the third round of the NCAA Division III tournament.

It was the second straight year Bowdoin (29-1) was eliminated by Smith (29-2) at Morrell Gymnasium; the Pioneers ousted the Polar Bears in the Elite Eight last season on their way to the national championship game.

“We just grinded,” Smith coach Lynn Hersey said. “A lot of missed shots, but a lot of really great defense. You win in a variety of ways in the NCAA tournament. Today was definitely a defensive battle.”

Martin scored all 16 of her points in the second half, including 12 in a game-changing third quarter, while Jane Loo added 12 for Smith. The Pioneers can reach a third straight Final Four with a win Saturday against Gustavus Adolphus of Minnesota.

“We have our banners, and at the beginning of the year we’re like, ‘This is what we’re fighting for,'” Martin said. “Every game is important, but what we really focus on is the end of the season. We focus on March.”

Sydney Jones led Bowdoin with 19 points and Grace Kinum scored 11. The Polar Bears got the deficit down to five early in the fourth quarter, but back-to-back Smith shots boosted the lead to 10, and Bowdoin couldn’t get hot at the end.

“There’s not a lot to be upset about when you’re playing Bowdoin women’s basketball,” Jones said. “Playing in Morrell is a really special experience. … These last couple of weeks, I really was making sure I took it in, took a breath and looked around at all the people around me.”

Smith made a point to limit the Polar Bears’ fast break, holding them to just four such points, and also kept them to 32.3% shooting from the field.

“We had to focus on transition D,” Hersey said. “Our team executed on that front. … (And) we did some things on ball screens that I thought slowed them down and created some different shots for them.”

Still, Bowdoin went ahead 27-26 when Jones, who scored 17 points in the second half, hit a 3-pointer with 6:30 to go in the third. It was the Polar Bears’ last lead, as Martin, who missed all three of her shots in the first half, began to heat up. She knocked down a floater and a jumper off the dribble on back-to-back possessions, hit a pair of free throws, and followed with a jumper for a 36-30 lead with 3:10 to go in the third.

“I was definitely frustrated in the first half,” said Martin, who went 5 for 5 in the third quarter. “At halftime, coach had a conversation with me, and it kind of sparked a fire. I knew if we wanted to win, I needed to step up.”

In a defensive game, the spurt swung the momentum to the Pioneers. Smith shot 27.9% from the field for the other three quarters, but 7 for 12 (58.3%) in the third.

“She was in the mid-range and hitting tough shots,” Bowdoin coach Megan Phelps said. “You can always say ‘Oh, you could have played better defense,’ but I kind of thought it was great offense.”

Bowdoin made it 40-35 on a Jones jumper with 8:40 to go in the fourth, but Loo hit a 3 and Ally Landau sank a pull-up jumper to put the Pioneers back ahead by 10.

“I honestly think our team loves the atmosphere,” Loo said. “Experience does help. We’re lucky to have a team that’s not afraid of the spotlight.”

Bowdoin trailed by five with 38 seconds left and couldn’t complete the kind of comeback it managed when it erased a double-digit lead against Colby in the NESCAC final.

“(Against Colby) we had the ‘Oh, this is different, we haven’t been here before,’  Jones said. “Today, it was, ‘We were here two weeks ago, and we came back from that.’ Our team went into the fourth quarter, the last five minutes, three minutes, still being really confident.”

After 29 straight wins, the Polar Bears had reason to be.

“It’s a really incredible team, and we fell a little short tonight,” Phelps said. “Only one team in the country gets to end their season as happy as they possibly can be. I don’t think it negates anything they achieved this year.”