ITHACA, N.Y. – Sophomore Gill Gerton had career-highs with 19 points and 14 rebounds and Coast Guard outscored Dickinson 20-4 in the fourth quarter en route to a 66-44 win in the opening round of the Ithaca Invitational.

Senior Megan Fornaro led all scorers with 20 points, junior Torie Sutherland had 11 points and sophomore Jill Bray added a career-high ten points in the win as Coast Guard improves to 2-1 on the season and will play in the championship game on Saturday at 3:00. It was the first loss of the season for Dickinson which drops to 2-1.

Coast Guard head coach Alex Ivansheck and Dickinson head coach Katherine Bixby are both alums of Ithaca they were assistant coaches together on the Ithaca staff. Bixby also played when Ivansheck was an assistant with the Bombers.

"I was very pleased with our effort this afternoon especially our second half defense," said Ivansheck. "We came into this game with a focus on defense and rebounding and I feel like we succeeded against a very well coached Dickinson team."

The Bears held the Red Devils to just one field in the fourth quarter and the first nine and 15 of the first 17 points in the quarter turning a 46-40 lead after three quarters into a 61-44 lead with 3:01 left in the game.

Gerton, who recorded the fourth double-double of her career and first this season, had five of the first seven points for Coast Guard in the fourth and following a layup by Bray the Bears opened up a 55-40 lead with 4:41 left.

Sam Kennedy led Dickinson with 17 points in the loss.

The first quarter featured seven lead changes with Coast Guard leading 14-13 while the second quarter  was more the same with neither team able to build a lead. The Bears took their biggest lead of the half 19-15 on a basket by Sutherland with 6:53 left in the first half.

Dickinson would use an 8-2 run to regain the lead 23-21 on a layup by Sam Kennedy with 3:36 left in the half. The teams would go to the half tied at 29.

Kennedy led the Red Devils with 13 first half points while Fornaro had 11 points in the first half for Coast Guard. The Bears were 13 of 33 from the field (39.4 percent) in the first half making 1-7 from behind the arc while Dickinson shot 40.7 percent from the floor in the opening half (11-27) and made 6-11 from 3-point range.

Dickinson led 33-31 before Coast Guard scored ten straight using baskets by five different players, the last one by freshman Shelby Threlkeld with 3:51 left to build a 41-33 lead and the Bears led 46-40 after three quarters.

Fornaro and Sutherland each added seven rebounds while Fornaro had game-highs with five assists and four steals for the Bears. Gerton and Threlkeld also had four steals in the win.

Coast Guard shot 39.7 percent in the win (29-73) while making just one of 13 from 3-point range. Dickinson was 17 of 51 from the floor (33.3 percent) making 7 of 17 from behind the arc.

The Bears dominated the glass outrebounding Dickinson 52-34 with a season-high 23 offensive rebounds.