There are a lot of youthful, inexperienced basketball teams in the Maine Division III women’s ranks this season.

That dynamic was in evidence again Tuesday night in Castine, where Maine Maritime Academy entertained Bowdoin College of Brunswick.

While the Polar Bears have a solid nucleus of veterans around which to build, they still have been forced to utilize a handful of largely unproven players in their quest to remain a conference and regional power and a national title contender.

One of Bowdoin’s young contributors is sophomore Caitlin Hynes of Owls Head. The 6-foot forward averaged only 10.5 minutes per game last season but has been forced into a more prominent role this winter.

Hynes, who missed the first six games due to injury, showed signs of her improvement against the Mariners. She scored 14 points, grabbed six rebounds and blocked three shots in 26 minutes.

“At the end of the game, she made a couple of big baskets and stayed mentally in the game and wanted the ball and was confident that she could do something good with it,” said Bowdoin coach Stefanie Pemper.

Hynes is averaging 5.7 points and 4.9 rebounds. Her emergence should help overcome the loss of classmate Leah Rubega to a season-ending knee injury.

That will require Hynes to demonstrate toughness playing inside in addition to her considerable perimeter skills.

Among other younger players contributing for the Polar Bears are former Old Town standout Katie Bergeron, a freshman guard from Bradley, sophomore guard Sabrina Cote of Dexter and freshmen Colleen Sweeney and Leah Weiss.

Maine Maritime coach Craig Dagan has a much more pronounced youth movement in progress.

The Mariners have 10 freshmen among their 14 players and eight of them have been playing regular roles on the squad.

Tuesday’s game against Bowdoin was the kind of test the Mariners need to continue their improvement this season.

“I think the biggest thing is our kids haven’t been in these situations before, and until they’ve been in these spots, they don’t have anything to pull from,” Dagan said. “We’re just getting that experience so that we can look back on this someday and use it to our advantage and say hey, we can handle this.”

MMA (6-7) continues to search for chemistry and consistency as the inexperienced members of the squad work with veterans such as senior Kaitlyn Leeman of Baileyville, junior Megan Franklin of Skowhegan and sophomore Kelsi Eiane of Harpswell, who have been part of the Mariners’ recent successes in the North Atlantic Conference.

“I’m happy with the progress that we’ve made,” said Dagan, who has seven freshmen among his top nine scorers.

“We’re starting to play our best basketball right now. If they keep moving forward, on and off the floor, the chemistry’s better and as long as we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to be OK,” he said.

pwarner@bangordailynews.net

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