Coast Guard Drops Two Basketball Games

The Coast Guard Academy dropped two basketball games on Thursday, losing a lead over Roger Williams University in the men's game and chalking up their fourth straight defeat in the women's game against Smith College. The following information was provided by Jason Southard, sports information director at the Coast Guard Academy:

Men's Basketball: Roger Williams 76, Coast Guard 74

Roger Williams team erased a ten-point second half deficit for a 76-74 comeback win against Coast Guard in a non-conference game.

The win for the Hawks is their fourth straight against Coast Guard and moves RWU back to the .500 mark, improving to 3-3 on the season. Coast Guard drops its second game in three tries, falling to 5-3 on the year.

Both teams began the game fairly even, with nine ties and eight lead changes culminating in a 38-all tie after the first half. Coast Guard opened up the second half on a 12-7 run to take a 50-43 lead with 14:49 to play. A layup by Kevin Sowers at the 10:30 mark gave the Bears their largest lead of the game, a 58-48 advantage.


The Hawks would soon turn the game around in their favor, with Matt Grossbard scoring seven straight Hawk points. Grossbard converted a four-point play after getting fouled on a three-point basket, and then earned another three points on an and-one on the next Hawk possession.

Joseph Henry would later knock down three straight free throws after being fouled on a three-point attempt of his own, pulling the Hawks to within two (62-64) with 6:40 to play. The free throws helped kick-start an 11-0 Hawk run, turning a 59-64 deficit into a 70-64 lead with 4:09 left in the game.

The Hawks maintained a five-point lead (74-69) going into the final minute before Devonte Weems drove down the paint for a layup with 19 seconds to play to bring Coast Guard within three. On the ensuing inbound, the Hawks were called for a five-second delay to give possession back to Coast Guard, giving the Bears a chance to tie the game.

David Anderson was fouled on a put-back attempt after grabbing an offensive rebound with 12 seconds to play, but missed the back end of his two free throws. Grossbard would grab the board and knock down a pair of freebies to give the Hawks a four-point lead (76-72).

Anderson laid in another basket with two seconds to play, giving the Bears one more last-ditch effort. Coast Guard fouled on the inbound and was fortunate enough to get misses on both free throws, but with only 0.4 seconds on the clock, the Bears weren’t able to get a shot off after corralling the rebound as the Hawks escaped with the win.

Grossbard set a new career-best in scoring with a game-high 24 points, including a perfect 4-of-4 from behind the arc and 8-of-8 at the line. Pat Flanagan added 17 points and eight rebounds, with Mike Igoe chipping in with ten points and six boards.

Anderson led Coast Guard with 19 points and eight rebounds. Sowers went for 14 points and five boards, while Weems added ten points and four steals. John Benedict added nine points, five boards, and two blocks off the bench.

This was the final game of the semester for the Bears, who are back in action on New Years Eve, when the Bears host Salve Regina at 1 p.m.

Women's Basketball: Smith 57, Coast Guard 42

Senior Ellie Giles had 14 points and seven rebounds and Smith scored the final ten points of the game as the Pioneers beat Coast Guard 57-42 in a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.

Smith improves to 7-1 overall and 3-1 in conference play while Coast Guard drops its fourth straight to drop to 4-4 overall and 0-4 in the NEWMAC

Coast Guard trailed 47-42 following a basket by sophomore Kaitlin Ward with 5:03 left, but that would be the Bears final points of the game as Smith scored the final ten including back-to-back buckets by Giles to start the run.

The Pioneers led 27-19 at halftime and 29-19 following a hoop by Giles with 19:13 left in the game before the Bears scored nine straight cutting the lead to 29-28 with 15:35 left. Smith quickly responded with a 10-3 run for a 39-31 lead with 12:11 left in the game.

Junior Devon Quattrocchi added 12 points in the win for Smith as the Pioneers shot 44.4 percent from the floor (24-54) while making just two of ten from 3-point range.

Sophomore Kaitlin Ward had a game-high 19 points to lead Coast Guard while freshman Alexi Howland led the way with a career-high eight rebounds to go with four assists.

Coast Guard is off until the New Year, when the Bears travel nationally ranked Babson on Jan. 4th with tipoff set for 5:30 p.m.