United States Coast Guard Academy - Department of Athletics - Men's Basketball - Johnson hits school-record 9 three's in upset win

BABSON PARK, MASS.—(2/21/07)—Grant Johnson had a school-record nine three-pointers as he connected on his first nine three’s of the night and he sank a pair of free throws with nine seconds left as he finished with a career high 33 points as seventh-seeded Coast Guard beat second-seeded Babson 70-66 to become the first seventh seed ever to beat a two seed in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament.

Coast Guard outscored Babson 23-6 over the final 9:25 of the first half to take a 37-23 lead at halftime.

Johnson was a perfect 5 for 5 from three-point range in the first half as he led all scorers with 17 first half points. Jeff Prebeck had nine points and seven rebounds in the first half for the Bears and finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Coast Guard shot 53.8 percent from the floor (14-26) in the first half while hitting on six of nine from three-point range.

Johnson connected on his eighth straight three-pointer with 12:04 left and Coast Guard led 52-40 before Zach Etten hit back-to-back three-pointers to cut the Babson deficit to six at 52-46 with 11:11 left.

Johnson hit his ninth straight trifecta with 7:50 left as Coast Guard led 59-51.

The old school record for three-pointers in a game was eight held by Jim Hiltz, who did it twice. Johnson finished 9 for 12 from three-point range.

The Beavers threatened the Coast Guard lead several times in the opening eight minutes of the second stanza, but Johnson and the Bears answered with big shots on each occasion. A three-point play by Bradley cut the Coast Guard advantage to eight, 46-38, with 13:44 remaining, but Johnson responded with a three to push the advantage back to 11. Junior Chris Bilodeau later hit a fastbreak lay-up to cut Babson’s deficit to nine, but Johnson again knocked down a clutch trifecta to put his team in front, 52-40, with 12 minutes on the clock.

Still trailing by eight with seven minutes left, Babson made one final push behind McDonald, who scored seven straight points during a 9-0 run that gave the Beavers their only lead of the second half, 62-61, with 4:43 remaining. Freshman Frank Cheske then put Coast Guard back in front to stay with an offensive putback with 4:13 left, and the two teams traded empty possessions for the next three minutes.

Prebeck converted a three-point play at the one-minute mark to push the Bears’ lead to four, 66-62, and Johnson later sank two free throws to make it 68-62 with 39 seconds remaining. Junior Brian MacDonald got Babson back to within two with a pair of freebies with 28 seconds to go, and Bradley added a clutch jumper to make it a two-point game with 18 ticks left. However, Johnson drew the ensuing foul and knocked down two more free throws to ice the 70-66 Coast Guard victory.

Babson had swept a pair of games from Coast Guard during the regular season.

Coast Guard will take on sixth seeded Wheaton on Saturday at 2 p.m. at WPI in the semifinals. The championship game will be played on Sunday at noon at WPI. Wheaton knocked off third seeded Springfield 61-54 in the first round.