Coast Guard Academy Sports Roundup

The Coast Guard Academy put in a pair of extremely close basketball games on Saturday, winning the women's game by a single point and losing the men's game by two points. The Bears also competed in wrestling against Roger Williams University. The following information was provided by Jason Southard, sports information director at the Coast Guard Academy:

Women's Basketball: Coast Guard 55, WPI 54

Freshman Jamie Waterman had a career-high 14 points and a game-high eight rebounds and Coast Guard used a 10-0 second half run and held off Worcester Polytechnic Institute 55-54 for its first New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) win of the season.

Coast Guard snapped a five-game losing streak and evened its overall
record at 5-5 while improving to 1-5 in conference play. WPI dropped its fifth straight to fall to 3-10 overall and 1-5 in the NEWMAC.

The Bears led 29-28 at halftime and scored ten straight in the second half turning a 32-32 tie into a 42-32 lead with 13:17 left. WPI answered with seven straight to make the score 42-39 with 10:24 remaining.

Senior Lauren Hannman’s layup tied the game 47-47 before sophomore Siena Mamayek’s only bucket of the game gave WPI a 49-47 lead with 5:25 to play.

Freshman Alexi Howland’s 3-pointer gave the Bears the lead for good 50-49 with 3:43 left. Waterman’s layup with 3:01 remaining gave Coast Guard a 52-49 lead.

Sophomore Kelly Morgan’s hoop with 1:36 cut the lead to 52-51 before sophomore Kaitlin Ward knocked down a huge 3-pointer with 1:14 left for the 55-51 lead.

Freshman Dani Davis hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to close the scoring.

Howland finished with ten points in the win.

Junior Theresa Logan had game-high 16 points and was the only player in double figures for the Engineers.

Coast Guard shot 33.9 percent (20 of 59) from the field while hitting five of 17 from 3-point range while WPI was 19 of 51 (37.3 percent) from the floor and made four of 14 from behind the arc.

Men's Basketball: Springfield 84, Coast Guard 82

Junior Alex Berthiaume had a game-high 28 points as Springfield College, which led by as many as 22 in the second half, held off a ferocious Coast Guard comeback to beat the Bears 84-82 in a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.

Coast Guard, which made just one of eight from 3-point range in the first half, shot a sizzling 80 percent hitting 12 of 15, including 11 straight from behind the arc, in the second half. The Bears missed a pair of shots in the closing seconds to tie the game.

Springfield led 40-24 at halftime and took its largest of the game 53-31 with 15:52 left in the game.

Coast Guard cut the lead in half trailing 68-57 with 8:56 left and then freshman Jesse Hughes and junior Greg Marshall hit back-to-back 3-pointers cutting the lead to 68-63 with 7:45 left.

Sophomore Kevin Sowers hit the Bears 11th straight 3-pointer with 6:39 left to make the score 72-69. Senior Trip Fernandes made back-to-back buckets cutting the deficit to just one 83-82 with 40 seconds left in regulation.

Springfield sophomore Robbie Burke, who was just two of nine from the foul line, made one of two with 14 seconds left giving the Pride the 84-82 before the Bears missed a pair of shots in the paint in the closing seconds.

Burke finished with 12 points and seven rebounds while senior Jordan Rote had nine points to go with his game-high eight rebounds for Springfield, which improves to 9-5 overall and 1-1 in conference play.

Marshall, had 19 of his team-high 26 points in the second half, hitting 10 of 16 from the floor, including five of eight from 3-point range. Sophomore Devonte Weems added 12 points and a game-high five assists off the bench for the Bears. Freshman David Anderson had a team-high six rebounds in the loss.

Springfield shot 49.1 percent from the field (28-57) while hitting six of 18 from 3-point range while Coast Guard, which shot just 30 percent (9-30) in the first half, finished 30-73 (41.1 percent) while making a season-high 13 treys on 23 attempts.

The Pride outrebounded Coast Guard 45-39.

Coast Guard drops to 6-5 overall and 0-2 in the NEWMAC.

Wrestling

Roger Williams University beat Coast Guard Academy 37-6 in the Pilgrim League and dual meet opener for both teams.

In the night's first match, Coast Guard freshman Nate Giorgio, ranked sixth in the nation at 125-pounds, earned six points for the Bears with a pin at 6:03. However, this would be the only scoring for the Bears as the Hawks would go on to sweep the remaining weight classes.

In the closest match of the evening, RWU's Jack DiBurro and Virgil Moreno would battle at 174-pounds to a 1-1 stalemate but DiBiurro would claim the victory for the Hawks with 2:31 of riding time.