NEW LONDON, Conn. – Austin Pickney's basket with ten seconds left lifted Emerson to a thrilling 68-65 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) win over Coast Guard.

Coast Guard junior Kevin Alvarez was called for charge driving to the basket with 1.6 seconds left before Eli Kell-Abrams made a pair of free throws with one second left.

Emerson improves to 7-6 overall and 1-1 in the NEWMAC while the Bears drop to 5-8 overall and 1-1 in the conference.

Pickney led the Lions with 15 points and eight rebounds while Ryan Clinesmith added ten points and seven rebounds.

Alvarez had a game-high 17 points for Coast Guard to go with six rebounds. Senior David Anderson and junior Ricky Rodriguez each finished with 11 points in the loss.

Tyson Hallowell gave Emerson its first lead of the second half, 51-49 with on a 3-pointer with 8:46 to play.

Emerson led 57-56 before Rodriguez scored the next five points giving Coast Guard a 61-57 edge with 4:41 left. The Lyons would then respond with five straight taking a 62-21 lead on a basket by Clinesmith with 3:14 left.

Anderson gave the Bears a 63-32 lead on a hoop with 2:43 left before Clinesmith scored again with 2:25 left for a 64-63 lead.

Rodriguez made a jumper with 51 seconds left to give the Bears a 65-64 lead.

Coast Guard shot  36.4 percent from the floor (24-66) while making 6 of 15 from 3-point range while the Lions were 25-48 from the field (52.1 perecent) and made 7 of 14 from behind the arc.

In the first half, following a 3-pointer by Alvarez a minute into the game, Emerson scored 10 straight to take a 10-3 with 14:41 to go in the first half.

Coast Guard used an 8-0 run to retake the lead 17-16 on a 3-pointer by Anderson with 9:53 left in the half.

The Bears led 29-26 before seven straight by Emerson gave the Lions a 33-29 lead with 2:34 left, but Coast Guard would score the final six points of the half including a shot at the buzzer by Alvarez and the Bears led 35-33 at the break. Alvarez had 15 points to lead the Bears in the half.

The Bears are back in action on Wednesday when they host MIT in a NEWMAC game at 7 p.m.