NEW LONDON, Conn. – Tyler Perez led three Coast Guard players in double figures with a game-high 16 points and a game-high tying eight rebounds as the Bears handed #17 WPI its first conference loss of the season 77-55 in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.

It was the first meeting between the two teams since Coast Guard upset second-seeded WPI 89-76 in the 2020 NEWMAC tournament championship game in Worcester.

Coast Guard improves to 5-11 and 2-5 in the NEWMAC while WPI is now 16-2 overall and 6-1 in conference play.

Garrett Drummond added 14 points and a game-high six assists while Cameron Brown came off the bench and finished with a career-high 14 points to go with a team-high tying eight rebounds for Bears.

Aidan Callahan and Brett Marelli led WPI with 10 points each with Kahleb Downing had a team-high eight rebounds.

The Bears shot 44.4 percent (28-63) from the floor and hit nine of 26 from 3-point range (34.6 percent) while WPI was 22 of 63 (34.9 percent) from the field and made just three of 18 (16.7 percent) from behind the arc.

WPI jumped out to a 7-2 lead before the Bears used an 11-4 run to take a 13-11 lead with 12:47 left in the first half. The Bears would later score eight straight to open up a 23-15 lead with 8:23 left in the half and Coast Guard led 34-27 at the break.

WPI would never cut into the lead in the second half as the Bears kept extending and pushed the lead to 21 at  65-44 with 7:45 left on a trey by Drummond.

The Bears are back in action on Saturday when they host Wheaton at 1:00.