The win by USMMA was its second straight over the Bears (5-2), who saw their five-game winning streak come to a halt in front of a Kings Point season-high crowd of 632. The host Mariners also secured an ever-important point in the schools' battle for the Superintendents' Trophy, which is awarded to the Academy with the most victories in designated contests against its arch-rival in an academic year. USMMA now holds a 4-2 lead in the competition (wins: Football, Soccer, Men's Basketball, Intercollegiate Sailing; losses: Volleyball and Offshore Sailing).
Buck (team-high 18 points) made a crucial steal on the right baseline from Al Sowers with 2 minutes to go, and canned a 3-point field goal off a Lou DeCarlo feed to cut the Coast Guard lead to 53-52 with 1:50 remaining. After Dan Sheppard hit a pair of free throws with just over a minute left to put the visiting Bears back up by three, USMMA junior Zach Wyatte converted a pass from Buck in the lane to bring the Mariners' deficit back down to one point.
After Wyatte missed a free throw at that point that would have knotted the game, the Mariners earned three consecutive offensive rebounds (the latter by Buck) before calling a time out with 37 seconds to go. Craig Johnson then fouled Buck two seconds after the inbounds pass, and the Warsaw, Ind. native converted both ends of a 1-and-1 to put the Blue and Gray up, 56-55.
Following a Coast Guard time out after Sowers was trapped on the baseline, the Bears ran a play for the freshman point guard. His driving lay-in rimmed out, and Buck pulled down the defensive rebound in heavy traffic after the ball deflected off no less than three players.
As the first half began, it looked to be USMMA's day, as they scored the first five points of the contest before holding a 17-7 lead (the only double-digit advantage by either side all day) on a conventional 3-point play by Wyatte (11 points, 5-for-10 FG) with 9:50 left. Coast Guard showed great resiliency, scoring 16 of the next 23 points in the game to pull within 24-23 with 2:10 left in the half. The Mariners held a 27-25 lead as the teams headed to the locker rooms at the break.
Kings Point twice expanded its halftime advantage to a seven-point lead twice in the second half, with the latter coming on a trifecta by Brian Kelly with 9:15 to go (KP, 47-40). Coast Guard then ran off the next nine points of the game, five by Craig Johnson (10 points), to go up 49-47 at the five-minute mark. USMMA's Joe Hart then hit a lay-in on the team's next possession to tie things up, before a Jeff Prebeck lay-up (game-high 19 points, nine rebounds) put Coast Guard up with 4:19 to go. The basket wound up being the Bears' final field goal of the afternoon.
USMMA's bench, led by Wyatte's 11-point outing, outscored Coast Guard's reserves, 29-13. Nine Mariners played 10-plus minutes on the afternoon, including Eric Hanson (3-for-4 FG), who buried a pair of 3-point field goals en route to a career-high eight points. Starting forward Sky Holm set a career-high with six assists. USMMA shot .396 from the field (21-53), and canned eight of its 26 3-pointers (.308).
Coast Guard got 12 points from Sowers. The Bears were hurt by only making 16 of its 48 field goals on the afternoon (.333), and USMMA took advantage on the boards this afternoon by holding a 39-27 edge. Sheppard added a game-high four steals, while Prebeck was 7-for-15 from the field and 5-for-5 at the line.
Head coach Chris Carideo's squad has 10 days off before playing Dec. 14, in a 7 p.m. tip-off at York (N.Y.) College in Jamaica, Queens, N.Y. Coast Guard is back in action Tuesday night (Dec. 7), when they host Becker College at 7:30 p.m. in New London, Conn.
At Kings Point, N.Y. - Liebertz Gymnasium USMMA-KINGS POINT 56, COAST GUARD ACADEMY 55 COAST GUARD ACADEMY (5-2) Jeff Prebeck 7-15 5-5 19; Al Sowers 3-8 4-4 12; Craig Johnson 3-5 4-5 10; Dan Sheppard 1-5 3-5 5; Kevin Edes 1-5 2-2 4; Ryan Ball 1-2 1-1 3; Grant Johnson 0-7 2-2 2; H.B. Baker 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-48 21-24 55. USMMA-KINGS POINT (3-1) Buck, Josh 6-13 3-4 18; Wyatte, Zach 5-10 1-2 11; Hanson, Eric 3-4 0-0 8; Hart, Joe 3-11 0-0 7; Kelly, Brian 2-5 0-0 5; Icke, Eric 1-2 0-0 3; Holm, Sky 0-2 2-2 2; Fassnacht, Jonathan 1-3 0-0 2; Sanders, Jimmy 0-0 0-0 0; McDade, Stephen 0-2 0-0 0; DeCarlo, Lou 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-53 6-8 56. Coast Guard Academy........... 25 30 - 55 USMMA-Kings Point............. 27 29 - 56 3-point goals-Coast Guard Academy 2-15 (Al Sowers 2-6; Ryan Ball 0-1; Grant Johnson 0-6; Jeff Prebeck 0-2), USMMA-Kings Point 8-26 (Buck, Josh 3-9; Hanson, Eric 2-3; Hart, Joe 1-6; Icke, Eric 1-2; Kelly, Brian 1-3; DeCarlo, Lou 0-1; Fassnacht, Jonathan 0-1; Wyatte, Zach 0-1). Fouled out--Coast Guard Academy-Craig Johnson, USMMA-Kings Point-None. Rebounds-Coast Guard Academy 27 (Jeff Prebeck 9), USMMA-Kings Point 39 (Hart, Joe 9). Assists-Coast Guard Academy 7 (Grant Johnson 2; Dan Sheppard 2; Jeff Prebeck 2), USMMA-Kings Point 17 (Holm, Sky 6). Total fouls-Coast Guard Academy 13, USMMA-Kings Point 22. A-632