SCRANTON, Pa. — 

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy women's basketball team earned back-to-back wins to start 2026 on Sunday with a 73-59 win at Marywood University. Dorothy Stotts (Edina, Minn.) led the way with a career-high 33 points, her second 30-point game of the season.

Coast Guard improves to 7-5, while Marywood's third consecutive loss drops them to 5-6. The Pacers will get an opportunity to snap their losing streak on Wednesday in Atlantic East Conference action at Centenary University (7-4).

Stotts played all 40 minutes and scored 19 of her final total in the first half alone, which included going 4-for-5 from the field and 5-for-6 on three-pointers to close out her first 20 minutes of play. After recording just five points in the third, she bounced back with a nine-point fourth to aid the Bears' close-out effort. The senior sniper's big day featured a clinic from beyond the arc, which saw her miss her first three attempts before going 7-for-9 to finish the outing. 

Stotts added nine rebounds and five assists to her statline. Olivia Wright (Midlothian, Va.) recorded 16 points with a block and a steal, while Elliot Geer (Grove, Okla.) secured a game-high 11 rebounds next to her five assists. Taylor Lynch (Madison, Ind.) had eight assists and three steals to lead both sides; the senior floor general entered the game ranking in the top-50 nationally in both total assists (46th) and assists per game (32nd). Colleen Finnegan (Dover, Pa.) swatted two shots on the day.

Anyah Ortiz paced the Pacers with 13 points, followed by 12 from Megan Cavoli. Ortiz also led Marywood on the day with five assists and had a block and a steal, while Cavoli was the top Pacer on the boards by pulling down six rebounds.

Coast Guard pulled away from an early 7-7 tie in the first quarter behind an 8-2 run, supplemented by a pair of threes from Stotts. The hosts hovered around a deficit of 5-7 points for the majority of the game before consecutive layups by Cavoli and Ortiz brought the Bears' lead down to 51-50 with 9:25 to go. Stotts responded with her seventh three of the game, and Farrah Peterein (Oxnard, Calif.) followed on the next possession with a jumper in the paint.

Marywood eventually got it back to a 56-54 game following a nice mid-range step-back by Jewla McCullon with 5:43 left, but the Bears closed it out with a 17-5 run. Geer sparked it with an and-one finish and drained the free throw before Stotts made it seven unanswered with back-to-back jumpers following Pacer misses, the second of which being a floater for her career-high 31st point.

Coast Guard put it on ice after Wright picked up an and-one chance to make it 69-59 with 2:04 to go. She missed the free throw but turned it into a four-point play after the Geer grabbed the offensive board and dished it back to her classmate in the paint, who drained the catch-and-shoot mid-range for the dagger.

The Bears shot 10-for-18 (55.6%) and outrebounded the Pacers, 12-4, in the final quarter, which highlighted the 50-36 advantage on the boards for Coast Guard across the whole game.

Bears women's basketball will be back on December 10th to host the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (4-12). The Crusaders are making the trip from Texas to New England for their first match-up with Coast Guard in program history.