The first half was a back and forth affair that featured five lead changes and eight ties. MIT used a 13-4 spurt late in the half to help take a 38-30 advantage into the locker room at halftime. After a three-pointer by Coast Guard’s Jeff Prebeck (Columbus, IN) to open the second half, the Engineers rattled off eight straight to extend the lead to 46-33 with 15 minutes remaining. From that point forward, the Bears were only able to cut the deficit to single digits only once.
Mike D’Auria (Newton, MA) paced MIT (20-7) with 17 points, while Jimmy Bartolotta (Littleton, CO) added 14 and Alex Krull (Boxford, MA) came off the bench to tally 11. Danny Kanamori (Brookline, MA) added six points and a game-best six assists while Hamidou Soumare (Bamako, Mali) contributed seven points and seven rebounds while electrifying the crowd with an eye-popping dunk during the key first half run.
Prebeck led all scorers with 23 points for Coast Guard, including netting 9-of-10 free throw attempts. Al Sowers (Monrovia, MD) added 12 points, while Craig Johnson (Medford, OR) tallied nine points while adding five rebounds, four assists and four steals. The Bears drop to 17-8 on the season and await word on Monday on possible ECAC Tournament berth.
With the victory, MIT reaches the 20-win milestone for the first time in the program’s 105 year history. MIT and WPI played two tight contests during the regular season with WPI emerging victorious both times by a grand total of three points.
Sunday’s championship game will available as a video webcast from Penn Atlantic. The webcast is the first of its kind in the NEWMAC. A link will be available on Sunday morning at www.newmaconline.com. Those with dial-up will be able to get audio of the webcast at www.d3hoops.com/audio.
Newspaper Box Score Coast Guard vs MIT 2/25/06 3:00pm at Worcester, MA At Worcester, MA MIT 69, COAST GUARD 57 COAST GUARD (17-8) Jeff Prebeck 6-13 9-10 23; Al Sowers 3-7 4-6 12; Craig Johnson 3-3 3-4 9; Jason Nelson 2-2 0-0 6; Justin Church 1-1 0-0 3; Steve Blum 1-2 0-1 2; Dan Sheppard 1-2 0-0 2; Ryan Burgess 0-0 0-2 0; H.B. Baker 0-0 0-0 0; Grant Johnson 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 17-34 16-23 57. MIT (20-7) Mike D'Auria 6-12 3-4 17; Jimmy Bartolotta 5-11 3-4 14; Alex Krull 4-8 1-1 11; Hamidou Soumare 2-3 3-3 7; Will Mroz 2-4 0-0 6; Danny Kanamori 2-9 1-2 6; Phil Murray 2-2 0-0 4; Gary Atkins 2-4 0-0 4; Adam Juneau 0-0 0-0 0; Bradley Gampel 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-53 11-14 69. Coast Guard................... 30 27 - 57 MIT........................... 38 31 - 69 3-point goals-Coast Guard 7-15 (Al Sowers 2-4; Jason Nelson 2-2; Jeff Prebeck 2-4; Justin Church 1-1; Grant Johnson 0-4), MIT 8-23 (Alex Krull 2-4; Mike D'Auria 2-6; Will Mroz 2-4; Jimmy Bartolotta 1-2; Danny Kanamori 1-6; Gary Atkins 0-1). Fouled out--Coast Guard-None, MIT-None. Rebounds-Coast Guard 27 (Jeff Prebeck 7), MIT 24 (Hamidou Soumare 7). Assists-Coast Guard 12 (Craig Johnson 4), MIT 12 (Danny Kanamori 6). Total fouls-Coast Guard 13, MIT 18. A-400 2006 NEWMAC Tournament Semifinal #2