The Coast Guard Academy women's basketball team fought to break an ongoing losing streak on Wednesday evening, but was unable to stop Springfield's College late game breakaway. The following information was provided by the Coast Guard Athletic Department:
Junior Kelly Murphy had a team-high 18 points including a 3-pointer with three minutes left that gave Springfield the lead for good in a 54-46 win over Coast Guard in a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.
Coast Guard, looking to snap a 16-game losing streak took a 42-40 lead on a pair of free throws by freshman Larla Brown with 4:22 left in game before Murphy made a pair of free throws with 3:56 left to tie the game 42-42.
Murphy’s 3-pointer gave the Pride a 45-42 lead with exactly three minutes left. Coast Guard sophomore Karli Collins made a pair of free throws to make the score 45-44 with 2:30 left before senior Abby Connors hit a 3-pointer for a 48-44 edge with 2:02 left.
Collins bucket with 1:31 made the score 48-46. Coast Guard got the ball back following a defensive stop, but turned it over with 47 seconds left.
Springfield missed the front end of a one-and-one but sophomore Emily Walker grabbed the offensive rebound and Murphy made a pair of free throws with 30 seconds left for a 50-46 lead.
Junior Kelly Slattery was 4-for-4 from the foul line in the final 13 seconds to ice the game for the Pride, who ran their win streak to a season-best five and improved to 10-12 overall and 10-5 in conference play.
Slattery finished with 14 points while Connors had 13 in the win. Walker had a game-high ten rebounds while junior Andrea Butler had a game-high five assists for the Pride.
Brown led all scorers with 19 points while freshman Kaitlin Ward added ten points and a game-high five steals for Coast Guard. Collins finished with nine points and a team-high nine rebounds in the loss.
Coast Guard, which led 23-20 at halftime, drops to 2-19 overall and 0-15 in the conference.
Springfield shot 38 percent from the field (19-50) while making six of 18 from 3-point range.
Coast Guard shot 34.8 percent from the floor (16-46) and made just one of seven from behind the arc. The Bears outrebounded Springfield 34-32.
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