United States Coast Guard Academy - Department of Athletics - Men's Basketball - Hot Shooting Leads Bears Past Rival Conn.

PURCHASE, N.Y.—(11/20/09)—Coast Guard scored the first 17 points of the second half after using a 16-2 run in the first half and the Bears beat neighborhood rival Connecticut College 73-60 in the first round of Castle Classic hosted by Manhattanville College.

The two New London schools traveled close to 100 miles to play what is the first of two meetings this season. The Bears will play at Connecticut College on January 11th.

Coast Guard (2-1) will take on Manhattanville in the championship game on Saturday at 5 p.m.

The Bears held the Camels scoreless for the first 8:18 of the second half and scored 17 straight to turn a 39-32 lead into a 56-32 bulge with 12:04 left.

Conn. College opened up its largest lead of the first half, 27-23 with 7:42 left in the first half before Coast Guard used a 16-2 run, which included a pair of three-pointers by senior Eric Hudson, and was capped on three-pointer by junior Brett Huntley as the Bears took a 39-29 lead with 2:45 left in the first half. Coast Guard led 39-32 at halftime.

All in all, the Bears run was 33-5 turning a 27-23 deficit into a 56-32 lead.

Conn. College got back into the game with a 12-2 spurt cutting the deficit to 58-44 with 9:43 left and got as close as 66-56 with 2:25 left.

Junior Trip Fernandes led Coast Guard with 17 points and six rebounds while Hudson and freshman Greg Marshall added each finished with 15 points. Marshall had two points total in the first two games this season. Junior Adam Radtke tied for the team lead with six rebounds.

The Bears had an excellent shooting night as they shot 55.3 percent from the field (26-47) while connecting on 10 of 16 from three-point range (62.5 percent).

Coast Guard shot a sizzling 59.1 percent from the floor in the first half as they hit on 13 of 22 and the Bears were even better hitting seven of nine from three-point range. Hudson led the way with 11 first half points.

The Camels shot 46 percent from the floor (23-50) while making seven of 15 from three-point range. Conn. College hit on 12 of 27 (44.4 %) from the floor in the first half while hitting six of 10 from three-point range.

Coast Guard head coach Kevin Jaskiewicz and Conn. College head coach Tom Satran, who were both assistant coaches on the Conn. College team that went to the Final Four in the 1998-’99 season, faced off for the first time as head coaches.