Coast Guard Picks Up Win And Loss In Wednesday Basketball

The Coast Guard Academy defeated Clark University in overtime in a men's basketball game, but fell to Springfield College in the women's game. The following information was provided by Jason Southard, sports information director at the Coast Guard Academy:

Men's Basketball: Coast Guard 91, Clark 81

Junior Greg Marshall had a game-high 22 points and sophomore John Benedict had a season-high 17 points and did not miss a field goal leading Coast Guard to a 91-81 overtime win over Clark in a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.

Coast Guard snaps a three-game losing streak and keeps its NEWMAC tournament hopes alive with a win improving to 8-12 overall and 2-8 in conference play while Clark drops to 10-11 overall and 3-6 in conference play.

Benedict, who was a perfect seven for seven from the field, made a free throw to open the scoring in overtime before Marshall nailed a three-pointer giving the Bears a 79-75 lead with 4:08 left in the extra session.

Sophomore Kevin Sowers, who finished with 15 points and a game-high five assists, scored a bucket with 55 seconds pushing the lead to 86-80 and the Bears held on for the win.

Clark led 75-74 following a layup by senior D.J. Bailey with 50 seconds left in regulation before Benedict made one of two free throws with 36 seconds left to tie the game.

The Cougars turned the ball over with three seconds left in regulation, but Marshall’s three-pointer at the buzzer was no good sending the game to overtime.

Clark jumped out to an early leads of 10-3 and then 15-5 with 13:57 left in the first half before the Bears used a 12-2 spurt to tie the game 17-17 and then trailing 20-17, Coast Guard used an 11-2 run to take its largest lead of the half 28-22 with 4:21 left following a layup by freshman Jesse Hughes. Coast Guard led 35-32 at halftime.

Coast Guard led by as many as eight in the second half 46-38 with 16:41 left, but Clark would regain the lead 63-61 on a hoop by Bailey with 7:23 left and pushed the lead to 65-61 following a pair of free throws by senior Mitch Renshaw with 6:46 remaining.

The Bears would take the lead once again 74-73 on a layup by Marshall with 1:53 left before Bailey’s hoop with 50 seconds left gave Clark its last lead of the game.

Coast Guard shot 55.4 percent from the floor (36-65) while making three of 10 from behind the arc while Clark finished 27-61 from the floor (44.3 percent) and made seven of 21 from three-point range.

Senior Trip Fernandes finished with 13 points in the win for Coast Guard.

Renshaw finished with 17 points and a game-high 11 rebounds while senior Travis Curley added 10 points for Clark.

Women's Basketball: Springfield 56, Coast Guard 47

Kelly Slattery had a career-high 28 points leading Springfield to a 56-47 win over Coast Guard in a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.

Springfield snaps a two-game slide and improves to 12-10 overall and 8-7 in conference action while the Bears dropped to 5-15 overall and 1-14 in the NEWMAC.

Coast Guard jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead in this contest after just four and a half minutes of play on the strength of three threes. But Springfield ran off a 7-0 spurt thee minutes later, knotting the score at 9-9.

The Bears took a 15-13 lead, but SC tallied eight straight points to inch ahead, 21-15. Freshman forward Jamie Waterman hit a put-back with less than a minute left in the half to cut the margin to one, 26-25.
But sophomore center Rachel Landon made a lay-up with 20 seconds to go to allow SC to take a three-point lead into the half, 28-25.

Three minutes into the second half, sophomore guard Kaitlin Ward cut the SC lead to one at 30-29, but the Bears could never take the lead.

With three minutes left, following a pair of freshman guard Alexi Howland free throws, it was still just a four-point game at 50-46. SC would make a bunch of free throws of its own, however, to seal the win, including two final free throws by Slattery with 8.7 seconds left to make it 56-47.

Slattery also added a team-high eight rebounds, while shooting 9-of-17 from the floor.

Howland led the Bears with 12 points and four steals while Alexa Hunko had a career-high tying 11 rebounds for Coast Guard which shot 29.4 percent from the floor (15-51) and made four of 16 from three-point range.