WORCESTER, Mass. – Coast Guard overcame a 25-point second half deficit to cap its improbable run and win the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) championship as the fifth-seeded Bears knocked off second-seeded WPI 89-86 in overtime to win its third NEWMAC championship in program history.

Coast Guard ran its season long win streak to seven improving to 14-13 while the Engineers drop 20-7. The NCAA tournament pairings will be announced at 12:30 on Monday afternoon.

Tyler Perez led Coast Guard with 23 points, 16 in the second half, while tournament Most Outstanding Player Noah Baldez had 16 of his 20 points in the second half and overtime and had a team-high nine rebounds and Packy Witkowski added 19 points in the win.

Garrett Stephenson had game-high 26 points (15 in the first half) to go with 11 rebounds for WPI.

Coast Guard was making its third appearance in the NEWMAC tournament championship game. The Bears beat host WPI in the both the 2007 and 2008 to win the championship.

WPI swept the Bears during the regular season winning 79-67 at home and 90-81 in Worcester. Coast Guard has beaten WPI just once since the 2008 NEWMAC championship game, that was a 73-58 win in New London last season. The Bears were 1-25 against the Engineers in that span.

The Bears, making their first NEWMAC tournament appearance since 2011, had a pair of impressive road wins to get to the championship game beating fourth seeded Emerson 80-78 in the quarterfinals before upsetting No. 14 and top-seeded Springfield, the #1 team in New England, 88-82 in the semifinals.

Coast Guard shot 44.6 percent from the floor (29-65) in the win while making seven of 17 from 3-point range. WPI was 31-60 from the field (51.7 percent) and connected on six of 21 from beyond the arc.

The Bears trailed 47-23 at the half, but came out on fire in the second half and after a WPI free throw Coast Guard used a 24-2 run cutting the deficit to 51-47 with 13:33 left in the game.
Kane hit a trey with 11:59 left as the Bears cut the deficit 53-52 and the Bears took the lead 60-59 on a pair of free throws by Baldez with 7:51 remaining before a trifecta by Perez extended the lead to 63-59 with 7:31 left.

The Engineers would pull even 65-65 with 5:44 left and took a 57-55 lead on a bucket by John Lowther with 4:26 left.

The Bears would take a 74-73 lead on an old fashion 3-point play with 1:33 left after and offensive rebound put back. Stephenson's layup with 54 seconds left gave WPI a 75-74 lead.

Baldez made a pair of free throws with 41 seconds left as the Bears took a 76-75 lead before Stephenson made two with 20 seconds left for a 77-76 lead.

Kane made one of two free throws with 7.9 seconds left and WPI missed a shot at the buzzer to win it.

In the extra session, Drummond made a layup and Witkowski hit a trey giving the Bears an 82-77 lead with 4:16 left.

Stephenson made one of two from the line with 39 seconds left to make the score 89-86 and following a Coast Guard miss, WPI missed a three to tie the game sending the Bears to the NCAA tournament.

WPI jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the first three minutes and never let up in the opening half. The Engineers used a 13-0 run to open up a 36-14 lead with 6:30 left in the first half. WPI shot 52.9 percent in the first half (18-34).