Box Score NEW LONDON, Conn. – Tyler Perez and Ben Yagey each had 16 points leading Coast Guard to a 71-63 win over host Mitchell in battle of New London schools.
Coast Guard beat the Mariners for the seventh time in the last eight meetings to improve to 3-6 on the season while Mitchell drops to 3-5.
Yagey had 11 of his 16 in the second half and was 4 of 7 from 3-point range in the win while adding a career-high eight rebounds. Perez and Madison Maloney each grabbed a team-high nine rebounds in the win while Perez added a game-high four blocks.
Jack Brunswick (11) and Declan Rooney (10) were also in double figures in the win for Coast Guard.
Ahmani Browne led Mitchell with 15 points and 13 rebounds off the bench.
Coast Guard led 38-26 with 18:30 left before the Mariners ran off nine straight cutting the deficit to 38-35 with 14:50 remaining.
Mitchell pulled even at 41-41 with 12:58 left before the Bears used a 12-3 run capped on a 3-pointer by Ben Yagey for a 53-44 lead with 9:52 left.
The Mariners answered right back by scoring nine of the next 10 trimming the deficit to 54-53 with 7:21 left in the game.
Yagey, Perez and Rooney made consecutive hoops as the Bears used a 7-0 run and pushed the lead to 61-53 with 4:45 remaining.
Coast Guard shot 38 percent in the win (27-71) while hitting seven of 18 from 3-point range. Mitchell was 25 of 74 (33.8 percent) and connected on four of 18 from downtown.
The teams got off to a slow start as Coast Guard was 1 of 7 from the floor and Mitchell was 2 of 12 and led 6-2 in the first four minutes of play.
The Mariners used a 9-2 run to take a 15-6 lead with 13:28 left in the half.
The Bears would respond with 12 straight to start a 24-4 run as the Bears took a 30-19 lead with 6:20 left in half and led 34-24 at the half. Perez led all scorers with 12 first half points.
Coast Guard is off until they open conference play on January 5th at Wheaton at 7:00.
