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

NEW LONDON, CONN.--(3/4/08)--The two-time defending New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) tournament champion Coast Guard Academy Bears led the way with three players named to the All-conference team as voted by the league’s seven head coaches.

WPI senior Antoine Coleman was Player of the Year, Wheaton’s Anthony Coppola was the Rookie of Year while WPI head coach Chris Bartley was named Coach of Year.

Senior Al Sowers, who is the Bears’ all-time leader in assists and 3-pointers as well as being second all-time at the Academy in scoring along with junior Craig Johnson, who leads the team this season with 14.6 points and 8.7 rebounds and is ninth all-time in scoring at Coast Guard were named to the first team while Coast Guard’s all-time leading scorer senior Jeff Prebeck was named to the second team.

Sowers, who was named to the first-team for the first time in his career, earns All-conference honors for the third straight season. He is second on the team with 13.5 points to go with his team-high 79 assists, 42 steals and 70 three-point baskets for a team best 42.7 percent from behind the arc (70-164).

Johnson, who took a year off last season, earns first-team All-conference honors for the the second time in his career, as he was a first-team selection in the 2005-’06 season in which he set a school-record with 507 points.

Prebeck, who was the NEWMAC Rookie of the Year in the 2004-’05 season, is third on the team this season with 12.7 points and second with 8.2 rebounds per game. He earns All-conference honors for the third straight season. He was a first-team selection last season and a second-team selection in the 2005-’06 season.

Coast Guard, which has won 10 straight, has tied the single-season school record with 21 wins (21-6). The record is shared with the 1978-’79 team which finished 21-3 and earned the school’s first NCAA Tournament bid.

The Bears, who are making back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in school history and third trip all-time, will play at No. 24 Trinity on Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.