Final Push Wins Women's Basketball Game For Bears

The Coast Guard Academy snapped a tied women's basketball game on Monday with a blitz of 18 points in the final minutes, keeping the Bears in an undefeated season with a win over Curry College. The following information was provided by Jason Southard, sports information director at the Coast Guard Academy:

Freshman Brittney Zimmerman had 18 of her season-high 25 points in the second half and Coast Guard broke a 48-48 tie with 5:35 left by scoring the final 18 points of the game to remain unbeaten on the season with a 66-48 non-conference win over Curry.

Coast Guard, which won just three games last season, improves to 4-0 for the first time since the 2007-2008 season. Curry drops to 0-4.

The Colonels had their biggest lead of the game 30-21 with 3:17 left in the first half before the Bears scored the final five of the half and trailed 30-26 at the break.

Curry junior Carolyn Houston’s jumper with 5:35 left tied the score at 48-48, the seventh tie of the game.

Sophomore Kaitlin Ward made three foul shots with 5:03 left to start the run and give the Bears the lead for good. Zimmerman knocked down a 3-pointer with 4:10 left before Ward added a bucket as the Bears pushed the lead to 56-48 with 3:43 left in the game.

Freshmen Dani Knox and Victoria Gurtler each made layups as the Bears put the game away leading 60-48 with 1:32 left.

The Bears were red hot in the second half shooting 63.6 percent (14-22) from the floor. Coast Guard shot 45.1 percent in the game (23-51) while making four of ten from 3-point range.

Zimmerman was nine of 12 from the field and three of five from 3-point range to lead the Bears while Gurtler added a career-high 14 points and eight boards. Ward had her second straight double-double finishing with 11 points and a game-high 13 rebounds to go with a game-high six assists. Freshman Jamie Waterman added a career-high 12 rebounds for the Bears.

Junior Hailey Rafferty led Curry with 19 points while classmate Julia Scrubb had a team-high ten rebounds to go with her six points.

Curry shot 28.8 percent from the floor (21-73), just 20 percent (7-35) in the second half, and made just one of 13 from behind the arc in the game.