Coast Guard Academy Sports Roundup

The Coast Guard Academy had a surprise victory over the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the men's basketball game on Saturday. The women's team lost to Babson College. The men's tennis team began their season on a strong note, winning all nine matches. The following information was provided by the Coast Guard Academy Athletic Department:

Men's Basketball: Coast Guard 62, MIT 53

Coast Guard held the Massachusetts Institute of Technology without a field goal for the final eight minutes of the game outscoring the Engineers 15-4 in that span enroute to a 62-53 upset win on Senior Day, the final home game of the season, in a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.

MIT took a 49-47 lead on a basket by sophomore Will Tashman with 8:16 left, but that would be the last basket the Engineers would score as they managed just four free throws, all by Tashman, in the final eight minutes of the game.

Coast Guard took the lead for good, 51-50 on a free throw by freshman Kevin Sowers with 6:01 left. Sophomore Jimmy Knudsen and Sowers added back to back buckets to give the Bears a 55-50 lead with 4:53 left.

Tashman made one of two free throws with 53 seconds left, the Engineers final point of the game, to make the score 58-53, but Coast Guard made four of six free throws to close the scoring and snap a season-long five-game losing streak.

Coast Guard led by as many at seven at 11-4 in the first half, but MIT scored eight straight for its first lead of the game 12-11 with 11:59 left. The Engineers led 30-28 at the break.

It was trio of freshmen scoring in double figures that led the Bears to a win on Senior Day as Devonte Weems had a game-high 17 points, Sowers added 13 points and John Benedict chipped in with 10 points off the bench. Senior Jevon James had a game-high 12 rebounds moving him into ninth place on the Bears all-time list with 654 rebounds.

Tashman finished with a double-double leading MIT with 16 points and 10 rebounds. No other MIT player had more than five points. Junior Jamie Karraker, who leads the NEWMAC with 79 three-pointers, was held to just four points and no trifectas.

Coast Guard shot 38.9 percent (21-54) while MIT shot 42.9 percent (18-42) from the floor. The Bears made just one of six from 3-point range while the Engineers connected on five of 18 from behind the arc.

MIT turned the ball over 21 times while the Bears turned it over just 10 times, their second lowest of the season.

The Engineers drop to 16-7 overall and 6-4 in conference play while the Bears improve to 9-13 overall and 4-7 in the NEWMAC.

Coast Guard now has a half game lead over Clark for the fifth and final NEWMAC tournament spot. The Bears are 4-7 while Clark is 3-7.

The Bears are off on Wednesday and play at Wheaton on Saturday while Clark will play at Babson on Wednesday and close the season at WPI. Clark controls its own destiny and will be the fifth-seed with a pair of wins.

It was the final home game for James, Jonathan Lang and Adam Radtke, whom were all freshmen on Coast Guard team that advanced all the way to the Elite 8 in the 2007-2008 season. The senior class has a record of 52-49 in 101 games.

Women's Basketball:Babson 83, Coast Guard 34

Nationally-ranked Babson College used a 25-7 first-half run to build a commanding 32-11 lead and never looked back as the Beavers defeated the visiting United States Coast Guard Academy Bears, 83-34, in a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.

With their 40th straight conference victory, the Beavers, ranked fourth in the nation by USA Today/ESPN and fifth by D3hoops.com, remained perfect at 23-0 overall and 16-0 in the NEWMAC.

Sophomore Sarah Collins was the game’s high scorer with 22 points for Babson, while junior Nicki Wurdeman added 19 points and junior captain Kathleen King had 16 points.

King was the game’s leading rebounder with nine caroms, while Collins added seven rebounds, four blocks, and three steals. Sophomore Katerina Mallios and senior captain Amanda Grammel each dished out a game-high five assists for Babson, which shot 59.0 percent (36-61) from the field in the victory.

Coast Guard (2-20 overall, 0-16 NEWMAC) was paced by freshman Larla Brown, who finished with 11 points, five rebounds, two blocks, and two steals. Freshmen Kelsey Lyford and Sam Marmolejo each added six points for the Bears, who were held to just 26.9 percent shooting (14-52) in the contest.

Two early jumpers by Brown kept Coast Guard close early, as the Bears trailed by just three at 7-4 after five minutes of play. However, the Beavers scored eight straight points to kick off a 25-7 run that resulted in a 32-11 advantage with 2:51 remaining in the half.

Babson eventually took a 37-16 lead into the break and Coast Guard never threatened in the second half as the Beavers coasted to the 83-34 victory.

Men's Tennis

Coast Guard won all nine matches to beat Division I Holy Cross 9-0 in the opening match in the spring portion of the season.

Greg Mitchell won at #1 singles 6-2, 7-4, Nick Martin won at #2 singles 6-0, 6-2, Austin Dean won at #3 singles 6-0, 6-2. Chris Hoffman won 6-0, 6-0 at #4, Josh Fischer won 6-1, 6-1 at #5 while Blake Maurer, coming back from an injury, won 6-0, 6-1 in his first match of the 2010-’11 season.

Mitchell and Martin won 8-3 at #1 doubles, while Dean and Hoffman (#2) and Fischer and Maurer (#3) both posted easy 8-1 wins for the Bears.

Coast Guard improves to 5-2 overall while the Crusaders drop to 2-7 on the season.