NEW LONDON, Conn. –
In a crosstown rivalry game, Coast Guard defeated Mitchell College 101-28. It was a true team effort for the Bears with 14 different players scoring, all 15 players on the roster playing over 10 minutes, and nearly half of the points(47) coming from the bench. The loss drops the Mariners to 2-3 on the campaign. They will next travel to Dudley Massachusetts to play Nichols College on Thursday December 12th at 5:30 PM.
Riding a six game winning streak, the Bears maintained that momentum and came out of the gate on fire and never trailing in the game. After Mitchell tied the score at 4-4 a minute into the affair, CGA took off and never looked back. They scored the next eight points to take a 12-4 lead in the quarter and ultimately entered the second quarter with a 23 point lead at 33-10. In the first, the Bears shot 63.2% from the field and an outstanding 60% from three.
The second quarter was more of the same for Coast Guard, who wound up leading 56-19 at the half. They shot 9-20 from beyond the arc in the half, two of which came from the hands of 6-2 senior forward
Glory Blethen(Boothbay, ME) who was 2-2 from three point land.
In the 3rd, CGA was again stellar on offense, shooting 75% from three and 50% from the field. The 3rd quarter also saw Coast Guard use a lineup of five freshmen on the floor for much of the period. The six freshmen:
Colleen Finnegan(York, PA),
Elliot Geer(Grove, OK),
Anna Gredell(Fair Haven, NJ),
Ruby Miller(Bethlehem, PA),
Martina Pike(Loudon, NH), and
Olivia Wright(Midlothian, VA) combined for nearly 1/3 of Coast Guard's scoring with 33 of the team's 101 points
The 4th quarter saw the Bears reach the 100 point mark for the second time thus far this season when
Mackenzie Hilden(Broomall, PA) made a layup to give the Bears 101 points. Hilden finished the day third on the team in points with 14, a new career high for the junior forward.
Leading the way in scoring for CGA were
Glory Blethen and
Dorothy Stotts(Edina, MN) who had 16 points each. Two other Bears were in double figures, the aforementioned Hilden had 14 and
Taylor Lynch(Madison, IN) had 10. Stotts dished it out for CGA today, with a team-leading seven assists trailed shortly behind by
Taylor Lynch with five. Lynch had a well rounded effort with one steal, two blocks, and 6 rebounds to go along with her 10 points and five assists.
On the glass, CGA was led by Mack Hilden who had nine boards and was trailed barely by
Glory Blethen and
Julia Mann(Central Square, NY) who had eight apiece. Blethen also topped Coast Guard in blocks with three. The Bears had nine steals with
Kelly Hagerty(Emerald Island, NC),
Anna Gredell, and
Elliot Geer pacing the way with two each.
As a team this evening, Coast Guard set season highs in both three pointers made(14) and Rebounds(64). The Bears, who are currently 14th in the nation in assist/turnover ratio had 30 assists today and 10 turnovers while forcing the Mariners to turn the ball over 20 times.
The red hot Bears will look to make it eight straight when they travel to Albertus Magnus on Thursday December 12th at 7:00 PM.
