Wellesley Basketball Battles Back to Top Coast Guard

WELLESLEY, Mass. -- Led by Chelsi Scott's double-double and Meghan Sargent's clutch free-throw shooting down the wire, the Wellesley College basketball team defeated Coast Guard on Wednesday night, 44-38, at Keohane Sports Center. The win, Wellesley's 11th in a row, lifts the Blue to 13-2 on the season, 10-1 in the NEWMAC. The Bears drop to 13-3, 9-3 in the conference.

Scott tallied 14 points and 10 boards to go along with three blocks and two steals for Blue. Sargent recorded seven points on the night, five from the charity stripe in the final two minutes, to ice the win. Wellesley also received key contributions from Morgyne Weaver with five points and eight rebounds, Natalie Anderson with five points and seven boards, and Katie Shulenberger with four points and nine boards. Ailis Hanley added five points for the hosts.

Torie Sutherland recorded a double-double for the Bears with 13 rebounds and 11 points. Brittney Zimmerman tallied eight points, while Meghan Fornaro and Dani Knox added seven points each.

Wellesley's 11-game winning streak ties for the second longest in program history, with the 1992-93 and the 1993-94 squads also winning 11-straight. The Blue record for longest win streak stands at 17, accomplished by the 1999-2000 Wellesley team.

Wellesley jumped to a 7-0 lead in the first four minutes of play, with layups from Anderson, Shulenberger, and Leslie Leong. The Blue were strong on defense as well, holding Coast Guard scoreless for the first eight minutes before Sutherland put the Bears on the board with a short put-back.

After a cold start, Coast Guard finished the half strongly, outscoring the Blue 17-6 over the remainder of the period for a 19-13 halftime lead. The run included four points each from Fornaro and Knox. But Sutherland accounted for most of the damage, tallying 11 points and nine rebounds in the first half of play.

The teams traded buckets to open the second stanza before back-to-back layups from Scott cut the visitor's lead to 23-20 with 14:47 remaining. One minute later Hanley drained a trey to tie the game at 23-23, sparking a surge that put the Blue on top, 29-24, with 8:14 left on the clock.

At the other end of the court, Wellesley held Coast Guard to just one point for over 10 minutes of play through the middle portion of the period. Knox stopped the bleeding for the Bears with two free throws, cutting the lead to 29-26 with 6:46 remaining. Wellesley responded with a Sargent layup and two free throws from Hanley, to push the lead back to seven, at 33-26.

Coast Guard made things interesting down the stretch, using a three-point play from Brittney Zimmerman and another Knox free throw to cut the lead to 33-30 with 2:14 left. However, solid free-throw shooting from Sargent and Scott re-opened a seven-point gap with 1:17, allowing the hosts to coast to the 44-38 win.

Both teams return to NEWMAC action at home on Saturday. Coast Guard will host Springfield at 1:00pm, while Wellesley hosts Emerson at 2:00pm.