SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Like the rest of the starters on the University of Southern Maine basketball team, Katie Frost spent the final minutes of her college career on the bench, watching the Huskies’ subs clean up a 69-56 loss to Hope College.

But it wasn’t too early for the Calais native to reflect on her four years in Gorham, including Saturday’s defeat in the NCAA Division III national championship game at a sold-out Blake Arena at Springfield College.

“I just tried to remember all the good times and that we had a great year,” said Frost, who scored 13 points to go with a game-high five assists. “You can’t look at the second loss of the season as showing what kind of year we had.”

Still, it was a bitter career finale for seniors like Frost and Megan Myles of Auburn, who scored a game-high 23 points against the Flying Dutch. Coach Gary Fifield’s Huskies went 32-2 this year after finishing third in the 2005 Final Four, and had been able to figure out the taller teams they faced throughout the season.

Not so Saturday, when a much bigger and deeper Hope squad of Holland, Mich., had all the answers en route to the program’s first national title since 1990.

The Dutch’s star was 5-foot-7 guard Bria Ebels, who pumped in 18 points to go with six rebounds, four steals, and four assists in a team-high 36 minutes. The Final Four MVP spent much of the game on the floor, while Hope coach Brian Morehouse rotated his forwards with regularity.

“There was no end to them,” said Ashley Marble, a Topsfield native who scored eight points to go with 15 rebounds and was named to the all-tournament team. “And it seemed like they got bigger every time they came in. They did a good job. They have tremendous size, they’re strong, and I didn’t think they could get any bigger, but I guess they can.”

Some of Hope’s key points came from 6-2 bench players like Ellen Wood, who had six points and a team-high nine rebounds, and Lindsay Lange, who finished with nine points, five rebounds, and three blocks.

Sarah Jurik, a 5-9 backup forward, scored 11 points.

“It’s nice to have so much staff in the post,” Wood said. “You know that when you go out there you can give it all you have because you’re gonna have someone in that’s gonna give it their all just as much as you did.”

USM went to a 2-3 zone to try to contain Hope’s forwards. The Dutch shot 3-for-20 from 3-point range, but their post players were able to muscle inside anyway.

And both Myles and Marble got into foul trouble late. Marble fouled out with 1:01 left.

“Their physicalness kind of took us out of our game for a little bit,” said Myles, who was also named to the all-tourney team.

Hope’s Julie Henderson, a 5-11 guard who was named to the all-tournament team after scoring 12 points, helped put the game out of reach.

Southern Maine led four times in the first half and went up 36-35 after a Myles fallaway jumper about 41/2 minutes into the second half. The Dutch regained the lead, but the Huskies remained within four points until Lange completed a conventional 3-point play with 4:38 left.

Myles responded with a jumper, but Ebels hit a 24-footer from the left side, and 13 seconds later, Henderson stole the ball from USM point guard Katie Sibley and went down for a layup and a 10-point lead.

“At that point, if we could have stayed four, five, or six [points behind], get it under two or three minutes, then certainly anything can happen,” Fifield said. “I think they went from [a six-point lead] to 11 in 30 seconds there, and we lost contact at that point. Then you’re playing from behind against a very quick team.”

The Huskies struggled from the free throw line, making just 13 of 23 attempts. USM was also outrebounded 52-38.

“You really need those freebies in a sense, and the fact that we couldn’t knock those down down the stretch really contributed,” Sibley said.

Marble, a 5-9 junior who scored 22 in Friday’s semifinal against Hardin-Simmons and wound up with a season average of 17.2 points per game, couldn’t get going against Hope’s man-to-man defense and 6-1 forward Linda Ebels.

“Swarming,” Marble said of the pressure. “I just felt like they were everywhere. They did a great job of when the ball was passed in. They’d have two or three people immediately all over.”

Taryn Mellody of University of Scranton (Pa.), which beat Hardin-Simmons (Abilene, Texas) 57-47 in the consolation game, was also named to the all-tourney team.

Fifield paid Hope the ultimate compliment for a Division III team.

“We just got beat by a very, very good team,” he said. “Probably as good a team as I’ve seen in Division III. … I tell you what, I think they beat a lot of Division I teams.”

FLYING DUTCH 69, HUSKIES 56

Southern Maine (32-2) Hope (33-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Marble 4 10 0 3 8 Warsen 1 2 2

Myles 8 24 6 10 23 L. Ebels 3 8

Cowing 0 1 1 1 1 B. Ebels 5 12 6 6 18

Sibley 4 10 1 1 9 Hendersn 6 13 0 0 12

Frost 4 12 3 5 13 Boles 0 5 3

Lin. Welch 0 0 0 0 0 Noll 0 4 0

Thibdeau 0 0 2 2 2 Kopke 0 0 0

Ross 0 0 0 0 0 Jurik 3 8 4 11

Sylvain 0 0 0 0 0 Stewart 0 0 0

Kynoch 0 3 0 0 0 Knox 0 0 0

Sante Fe 0 0 0 0 0 IntVeld 0 0 0

Lis. Welch 0 0 0 0 0 Wood 3 9 6

Samuelsn 0 0 0 0 0 Lange 4 5 9

Bryant 0 0 0 0

Reincke 0 0 0 0

Totals 20 60 13 23 56 Totals 25 66 16 25 69

Southern Maine 30 56

Hope 33 69

3-pt. goals – Southern Maine (3-16): Frost 2-8, Myles 1-5, Marble 0-1, Cowing 0-1, Sibley 0-1; Hope (3-20): B. Ebels 2-6, Jurik 1-5, Noll 0-2, Boles 0-3, Henderson 0-4

Attendance: 2,018