Coast Guard Edges Wellesley Basketball, 69-68

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- Coast Guard Sophomore Torie Sutherland's basket with 1:02 left gave the Bears the lead for good as Coast Guard remained unbeaten by holding off Wellesley 69-68 in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.

Sutherland's bucket gave Coast Guard a 67-65 lead that they would not relinquish. Wellesley had a shot to tie the game, but could only convert one of two free throws, setting the score to 67-66. Coast Guard Junior Dani Knox then hit a big jumper with 18 seconds left to push the Bears lead to 69-66.

Wellesley answered when junior Morgyne Weaver drove the lane for an uncontested layup with six seconds left to make the score 69-68. The Blue had another chance when Coast Guard junior Brittney Zimmerman missed the front end of a one and one with 4.1 seconds left. Wellesley sophomore Chelsi Scott got the rebound and threw a pass to senior Leslie Leong, but Leong could do nothing but chuck a desperation heave that was off the mark as time expired.

Coast Guard improves to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in conference play, its first 2-0 start in the NEWMAC since the 2007-08 season while Wellesley drops to 2-2 overall and 0-1 in the conference.

The Bears shot a sizzling 62.5 percent from the field in the first half (15-24) and led 41-37 at halftime as junior Alexi Howland led the way with ten points off the bench in the opening 20 minutes. Coast Guard led by as many as ten (36-26) in the first half. For Wellesley, Leong had 10 first-half points, while junior Meghan Sargent had nine.

Coast Guard pushed the lead back to ten by scoring the first six points of the second half, the first four by senior Kaitlin Ward, to take a 47-37 lead with 17:26 left in the game.

The Blue cut the lead to 49-47 with 13:35 left using an 11-2 spurt. Wellesley then took its first lead of the second half 54-43 on free throw by Weaver with 9:03 left.

Knox's bucket with 5:39 gave Coast Guard a 63-58 lead, but the Blue would come back to tie the game 65-65 on layup by junior Natalie Anderson with 1:22 left, 20 seconds before Sutherland gave the Bears the lead for good.

Ward had her second straight double-double as she finished with a 16 points and 12 rebounds, both season-highs. Sutherland added 14 points, Knox had a season-high 12 points while Howland had a season-high ten points, all in the first half in the win.

Junior Brittney Zimmerman had nine points to go with a game-high seven assists for Coast Guard.

Leong led Wellesley with 18 points and six rebounds, while Weaver finished with 13 points. Anderson finished with 12 points in her first action of the season while Sargent had ten points and first-year Ailis Hanley added six rebounds.

Coast Guard shot 51.9 percent from the field (28-54) while making 3 of 9 from 3-point range. Wellesley shot 47.9 percent from the floor (23-48) and were great from behind the arc, hitting  8 of 12. 

The Bears are back in action on Tuesday night when they host MIT in a NEWMAC game at 7:30 p.m. Wellesley also continues its NEWMAC schedule on Tuesday, traveling to Emerson for a 7:00 p.m. clash.