United States Coast Guard Academy - Department of Athletics - Men's Basketball

NEW LONDON, CONN.--(2/26/07)--Cinderella has found a dance partner. The Cinderella team of the 2007 NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament, the Coast Guard Academy Bears, will take on Little East conference champion Rhode Island College on Friday night at 8 p.m. in the first round of the tournament at RIC. To view the full bracket CLICK HERE.

These teams have a history as Rhode Island College beat Coast Guard 76-71 in New London during the regular season overcoming a 19-point deficit to snap the Bears season long five-game win streak. RIC also beat Coast Guard 70-68 in overtime in the first round of the ECAC Tournament last season. RIC is 24-3 overall this season and the Anchormen have won eight straight games. Two of the three losses were to league rival Keene State which RIC beat in the Little East championship game 87-75.

The Bears made an improbable run to win their first ever New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) tournament championship after finishing in last place with a 2-10 conference record during the regular season. Coast Guard won the championship by stunning top-seed and host WPI, the two-time defending NEWMAC regular season and tournament champions 71-66 in the final. WPI, ranked 13th nationally, is 22-3 overall and received an at-large berth in the field of 59 teams.

Both Coast Guard and Rhode Island College won their respective conference tournaments for the first time in school history and both teams go to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1979.

Coast Guard, 14-13 overall, along with Widener University (14-12), which won the Commonwealth Conference tournament have the least amount of wins of the tournament teams.

The Bears lost seven of their final eight regular season games and finished 11-13 overall and 2-10 in league play, five of those league losses were by a combined 13 points with eight of the 10 NEWMAC losses by single digits. The two losses by 10 points or more were both home losses to Babson 74-62 and WPI 67-57. Ironically the Bears beat both second-seeded Babson and WPI on the road to the tournament championship.

Junior Al Sowers was named the NEWMAC Player of the Week as the point guard hit the game winning shot against Wheaton with 24.7 seconds left in the semifinals and then had a game-high 23 points in the championship game. Sowers, had just three turnovers in 104 minutes of play in the tournament while averaging 12.3 points per game.

Junior Grant Johnson hit a school-record nine 3-pointers in the first round win at Babson while classmate Jeff Prebeck, the nation's leading rebounder was the star with 20 points and 15 rebounds in the semifinal win over Wheaton.