Coast Guard Splits Basketball Openers

The Coast Guard Academy got its basketball season off to a mixed start this week, with the women's team defeating Framingham State University on Wednesday and the men's team falling to Albertus Magnus College on Tuesday. The following information was provided by Jason Southard, sports information director at the Coast Guard Academy:

Women's Basketball: Coast Guard 69, Framingham State 57

Sophomore Kaitlin Ward had career-high 23 points leading Coast Guard to a season-opening 69-57 win over Framingham State in the season opener for both teams.

Ward, who also added seven rebounds, five assists and three steals, along with four freshmen started for the Bears. Freshman Brittney Zimmerman added 14 points and a game-high six assists while freshman Victoria Gurtler came off the bench and had a double-double finishing with 12 points and ten rebounds.

Framingham State led 8-3 just under five minutes in before the Bears scored eight straight for an 11-8 lead with 12:29 left in the first half. Coast Guard led 30-29 at halftime.

The Rams regained the lead 35-34 on a layup by freshman Nicole Bostic with 15:06 left in the game, that would be the last lead of the game for Framingham.

Coast Guard leading 38-37 used a bucket by Ward and a 3-pointer by freshman Alexi Howland to take a 43-37 lead with 13:03 left.

The Bears led 52-47 with 6:13 left before another 3-pointer by Howland started a 7-0 run by the Bears to ice the game putting Coast Guard up 59-47 with 2:41 left.

Bostic had 11 of her team-high 15 points in the second half for the Rams. Sophomore Kristen Hoffman had 12 points while junior Kia Minor had ten points and a team-high nine rebounds.

Coast Guard shot 38.8 percent from the field (26-67) while making six of 17 from 3-point range and 11 of 13 from the foul line.

Framingham State was 21 of 61 from the floor (34.4 percent) while making just two of 11 from behind the arc. The Rams were 13 of 17 from the charity stripe.

Coast Guard won its season opener for the third straight season.

Men's Basketball: Albertus Magnus 86, Coast Guard 75

Senior Ray Askew led all scorers with 40 points to go with his game-high 16 rebounds as Albertus Magnus beat Coast Guard 86-75 in the season opener for both teams.

Freshman David Anderson led five Bears in double figures with 15 points while junior Greg Marshall (14), sophomore Kevin Sowers (13), junior Jimmy Knudsen (11) and sophomore Devonte Weems (11) also scored in double figures for the Bears.

Anderson and Knudsen led Coast Guard with eight rebounds each while Sowers led the way with six assists and three steals.

Sophomore Darius Watson also scored in double figures as he netted 20 points, while shooting 8-for-16 from the floor. He added eight rebounds as well.

Albertus (1-0) opened tonight’s contest with a 10-3 run in the first 2:14 before extending its lead to 13 with three minutes to go in the first half. During the early run, Askew scored all 10 points for the Falcons as Arshad Jackson assisted on each of his buckets. Jackson finished the night with a team-best eight assists.

Askew scored 21 of his 40 points in the first half as he shot 8-for-10 from the floor in the opening frame. The senior also grabbed eight boards in the first frame, in 14 minutes played.

The Falcons went into the halftime break with a 52-39 advantage before Coast Guard came out in the second half and outscored the home team 36-34.

The Bears opened the second half with a 15-6 run to cut the Albertus lead to four with 14:30 on the clock. With help from Watson and Askew, the Falcons pushed their lead back up to 13 with less than nine minutes to go in the contest. Under the three-minute mark, Albertus took a 15-point lead and never looked back.

Askew shot 11-for-14 from the free throw line in the second half alone, while finishing the night 14-for-19 on the charity stripe. The Falcons also scored 27 points off 21 Coast Guard turnovers, while outrebounding the Bears 47-35.

The Falcons shot 55.3 percent from the floor in the first half (21-38) and finished 43.5 percent (30-69), just six of 26 from three-point range.

Coast Guard shot 46 percent from the field in the game (29-63) while hitting four of 12 from behind the arc. The Bears shot 53.3 percent in the second half (16-30).