NEW LONDON, Conn. — 

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy women's basketball team defeated visitors Amherst College on Tuesday night, 83-76. It was a statement win for Coast Guard, who outlasted the regional power in a wire-to-wire battle, as well as a historic moment for head coach Alex Ivansheck, who became the program's all-time leader in coaching wins with the victory.

Coast Guard improves to 8-6, while Amherst's third-straight loss drops them to 9-4. The Mammoths will face New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) rivals RV/#23 Trinity College (12-4) on Friday, January 16th, for their next bounce back attempt. Amherst entered the week receiving votes in the weekly d3hoops.com Top 25 poll.

It was a vintage scoring night from Dorothy Stotts (Edina, Minn.), who led the game with 31 points on 58.8% shooting (10-for-17) and a 6-for-8 night on three-pointers. The performance marks her third 30-point game of the season and the fourth of her career. Olivia Wright (Midlothian, Va.) added 18 points with a team-high three steals. Elliot Geer (Grove, Okla.) and Taylor Lynch (Madison, Ind.) led the way on the boards with six rebounds each, while Geer dished a game-leading five assists. Farrah Peterein (Oxnard, Calif.) had a day on defense with two blocks and two steals.

Chase Anderson was great all-around for the Mammoths, posting teams-leading totals of 19 points and seven rebounds to go alongside her three blocks and two steals. Laura Mendell and Regan Pahl matched each other for the Mammoth-high in assists, which three each, with Pahl's total outdone by her game-high six steals.

It was as good a shooting night as any for the Bears, who went 50.9% from the field (27-for-53) and a 11-for-21 on three-pointers. Amherst shot 36.6% (26-for-71) from the field and 6-for-26 on three-pointers, but stayed in the game despite the disparity in success due to tenacity on the boards and in the lanes.

The Mammoths pulled down 24 offensive rebounds to nearly match Coast Guard 27 on defense and forced 21 turnovers from the Bears. Amherst ultimately found themselves unable to take full advantage, putting up just 25 second chance points and 22 points off turnovers, the latter of which Coast Guard outdid with 24 points on 16 losses of possession by the Mammoths.

With Amherst leading close at 10-9 just five minutes into the first quarter, Coast Guard went on a 17-6 run to take a ten-point lead into the second. Wright and Stotts accounted for all 17 of those digits, with Wright putting in a majority of ten. Coast Guard carried the advantage into halftime and eventually raised it to as much as 59-41 with 4:39 to play in the third.

The fourth quarter saw the visitors chipping away at the deficit, with Anderson opening the final ten by draining a three-pointer to make it a ten-point game at 67-57. Amherst outscored their hosts, 22-14, after a Pahl triple with 18 seconds left had the Mammoths trailing by just five points. The Bears called a timeout to set up a play at half court, and it was Anna Gredell (Fair Haven, N.J.) who got free of her defender to catch the inbound pass and receive the immediate foul by the Mammoths.

Gredell, who had been making key plays all night in the form deflections on Amherst passes to disrupt the visiting side's momentum and tipping offensive misses to her teammates in order to keep a play alive, sunk the dagger by draining both free throws.

Coach Ivansheck moves past predecessor Alex Simonka on the program's coaching wins leaderboard, with the win being the 183rd of her time at Coast Guard. Stotts reflected on Ivansheck's impact on herself and her teammates, saying "I feel incredibly lucky to have played under her leadership for the past four years. She challenges us every day to be the best players we can be. No one deserved this achievement more than her, and we're excited to have the chance to add to it when we get back on the floor this Saturday."

FULL BOX SCORE

The Saturday in question will see Bears women's basketball upgrade their opponent from regional powerhouse to national, as they take on #4/#3 Smith College (13-0) in opener to the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) portion of both teams' schedules. The back-to-back national runners-up took a 70-62 victory in the two sides' last meeting, which happened to be in the first round of last season's NEWMAC playoffs, which proved to be one of the closest games the Pioneers played up to that point.