The Coast Guard Academy men's basketball team again showed signs of finishing its season strong on Wednesday, defeating Babson College and advancing to the tournament semifinals. The following information was provided by the Coast Guard Academy Athletic Department:
Senior Jevon James led all scorers with 20 points to go with a team-high eight rebounds off the bench and the fifth-seeded Bears overcame a 14-point first half deficit and beat fourth-seeded Babson 62-53 in the first round of the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) tournament.
The Bears improve to 11-13 overall and will take on top-seed and host WPI on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the semifinals.
Coast Guard used that 15-4 spurt to start the second half turning a six-point deficit at the break into a 42-37 lead with 12:36 left. The Bears took their first lead of the game 36-35 on a 3-pointer by sophomore Greg Marshall with 14:25 left and the run was capped on a pair of free throws by sophomore Jimmy Knudsen.
Babson senior Matt Zoia hit a 3-pointer with 4:03 left to pull the Beavers to within two at 54-52, but James’ bucket with 1:25 left pushed the lead to 56-52 and the Bears made all six free throws in the final 30 seconds, four by freshman Kevin Sowers and two by James to hold on for the win.
Babson tied the game 44-44 on a 3-pointer by sophomore Alex Rudolph with 10:34 left before the Bears ran off six straight for a 50-44 lead with 9:24 following a pair of free throws by freshman Kevin Sowers, who finished with 15 points and six rebounds.
Babson got off to a quick start in the opening minute as junior Kris Noonan scored the first six points of the game for a 6-0 lead with 17:53 left. Babson scored the first eight points of the game and led 10-2 with 13:19 left.
Coast Guard made just one of its first eight field goal attempts and turned the ball over six times in the opening seven minutes.
Sophomore Ed Gailor scored five straight points as Coast Guard pulled to within 13-9 with 11:18 left.
The Beavers responded with nine straight to start a 12-2 run and take their largest lead of the game at 25-11 following a 3-pointer by Zoia with 7:45 left in the opening half.
Coast Guard would answer with a 14-3 spurt capped on a 3-pointer by freshman Devonte Weems to cut the deficit to 28-25 with 3:33 remaining. James had six points during the run for the Bears.
Zoia hit his third 3-pointer of the opening half with 1:27 left to close the first half scoring and give the Beavers a 33-27 lead at the break.
Coast Guard shot 38 percent from the floor (19-50) while hitting 3 of 9 from 3-point range while Babson was 34.9 percent from the field (22-63) and made five of 16 from behind the arc.
James moved into eighth place on the Bears' all-time rebounding list with 674 rebounds passing Dave Willhite ('75), who had 673 career boards.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
