Box Score KINGSPOINT, N.Y. – Coast Guard men battled back from a 17 point deficit but could not complete the comeback, falling to arch rival Merchant Marine 51-49.
The Bears were led by senior David Anderson who had a game high 22 points and five rebounds. Junior Kevin Alvarez added 11 points and a game high eight rebounds as Coast Guard dropped to 4-5 on the season.
Junior David Smith had 16 points and seven points and freshman Robbie Kennedy had 11 points and six rebounds for the Mariners. Sophomore Matthew Miller added 10 points of his own pushing Merchant Marine's record to 2-6.
The Mariners ran out to an early lead scoring 21 of the first 29 points of the game for an early 21-8 advantage on a Kennedy three pointer.
Merchant Marine continued to apply pressure through the first quarter taking their lead all the way to 17 points at the 4:58 mark when junior Andrew Williams' jump shot made it 32-15.
The Bears were able to cut into the deficit right before the end of the half scoring six of the final seven points on layups by sophomore Adrian Chuquillangui and Alvarez and two free throws by junior Ricky Rodriguez to make the score 35-24 at intermission.
Coast Guard continued chipping away at the Mariners lead in the second half when an old fashioned three point play by junior Ryan McNeil made the score 28-35 at the 15:38 mark.
The Bears then went on an 11-2 run to take their first lead of the game, 39-37, on an Alvarez layup with 10:46 remaining in the game.
Each team would swap the lead five more times from that point on until a Rodriguez layup made it 49-49 with 32 seconds left.
As the game looked destined for over time Miller attempted a layup with four seconds left in the game but was blocked by senior Eli Sponseller. Miller, however, collected his own rebound and quickly scored to take 51-49 lead with one second left in the game. Rodriguez attempted a three pointer at the buzzer for the win but missed as the Merchant Marine earned their first victory of the year against the Coast Guard in any sport.
The Bears shot 35.1% (20-57) from the floor and 3-14 (21.4%) from three. Two of the three made three pointers were from Anderson who was 2-2 from deep. Coast Guard also dominated the paint outscoring the Mariners inside 26-16.
Merchant Marine shot 30.9% (17-55) and 6-23 (26.1%) from beyond the arch. The Mariners held an advantage on the boards, out rebounding the Bears 44-35.
Coast Guard will return to action after the holiday when they travel to West Point, New York to face Division I foe Army on December 28th. Tip-off is at 3:00 pm.
