Coast Guard Men's Basketball Picks Up First NEWMAC Win

The Coast Guard Academy split a pair of games with Wheaton College on Wednesday, winning the men's competition and losing the women's competition. The following information was provided by Jason Southard, sports information director at the Coast Guard Academy:

Men's Basketball: Coast Guard 75, Wheaton 69

Junior Jimmy Knudsen had a season-high 15 points and a career-high 13 rebounds while classmate Greg Marshall had 15 points as Coast Guard snapped a six-game losing streak with a 75-69 win over Wheaton in a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.

Coast Guard won its first conference game of the season and improved to 7-9 overall and 1-5 in league play while Wheaton dropped to 8-9 overall and 2-4 in the NEWMAC.

Sophomore Kevin Sowers added 13 points and four assists while classmate John Benedict added 10 points in the win.

Coast Guard jumped out to an 11-3 lead in the first four minutes, but Wheaton later used a 12-4 spurt to take its first lead of the game 20-18 following a three-pointer by senior Brendan Degnan with 9:19 left in the first half.

The Lyons led the rest of the half, pushing the lead to as many as eight on pair of occasions and leading 40-34 at half. Degnan had 16 of his game-high 24 points in the first half.

The Bears scored the first six points of the second half to pull even 40-40 with 17:01 remaining.

Senior Trip Fernandes hit a three-pointer as the shot clock expired to give Coast Guard its largest lead of the second half to that point, 55-51 with 9:24 left in the game.

Wheaton tied the game 57-57 as freshman Ryan Clinesmith made one of two free throws with 6:48 left.

The Bears would use a 9-2 spurt to take a 66-59 lead with 3:41 left, but again the Lyons responded as freshman Eddie Capstick and senior Anthony Weeks knocked down three-pointers to cut the lead to 66-65 with 2:49 left.

Marshall scored the next four points on a pair of free throws and a bucket with 1:33 left for a 70-65 lead.

Sowers went four-for-four from the foul line in the next minute to put the game away as the Bears led 74-69 with 24 seconds left.

Weeks finished with 13 points while senior Shawn Daily grabbed a career-high tying 14 rebounds for the second straight game.

Coast Guard shot 39.1 percent from the field (25-64) while making four of eight from three-point range while Wheaton shot 31.7 percent from the floor (20-63) while making just eight of 35 (22.9 percent) from behind the arc.

The Bears outrebounded Wheaton 45-40.

Women's Basketball: Wheaton 60, Coast Guard 44

Freshman Abbie Brickley had a game-high 16 points to give a 60-44 win over Coast Guard in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.

Seniors Gabbie DePalo and Nicole Cullinane each added 13 points to help the Lyons (8-10, 6-5 NEWMAC) pick up their fifth win in their last seven games. Defensively, the Lyons held the Bears (5-10, 1-10 NEWMAC) to 25.4 pct. shooting (15-of-59) and outrebounded them 43-37.

The Lyons took a 29-20 lead into the locker room at halftime behind 11 points from Brickley and eight from Cullinane. Wheaton - which shot 43.3 pct. in the first half - closed the half on a 9-0 run, sparked by a pair of buckets from Brickley and a triple by Cullinane.

The Bears, meanwhile, connected on 26.9 pct. (7-of-26) of their shots and turned the ball over eight times, compared to just three for the Lyons. Sophomore Kaitlin Ward and freshman Brittney Zimmerman led CGA with five points each in the opening stanza.

Brickey recorded a three-point play early in the second half to give the Lyons a 37-26 lead. Coast Guard cut its deficit to eight at 48-40 with less than five minutes remaining, but junior Gabbie Barbera buried a three with 4:20 on the clock to push the lead back to double-digits. Less than a minute later, Cullinane drained her third three-pointer of the game to put Wheaton up 53-41 and essentially seal the win.

Freshman Kenzie Kuhn snared a career-high 13 rebounds for Wheaton and also tied a career-high six with assists. As a team, the Lyons finished the night shooting 43.6 pct. (24-of-55).

Ward led Coast Guard with 12 points and six rebounds while freshman Jamie Waterman recorded nine points and 10 rebounds. Zimmerman finished with eight points, three assists and a pair of steals.