Home  Basketball (M) Men's Basketball - IMPROBABLE RUN CONTINUES; BEARS ONE STEP FROM FINAL FOUR
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Men's Basketball - IMPROBABLE RUN CONTINUES; BEARS ONE STEP FROM FINAL FOUR |
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 Al Sowers took over a tie game in the second half with nine straight points. The Bears are one win from the Final Four.
Coast Guard (24-6), which won its 13th straight, held Rochester (22-6) to a season-low 48 points.
The Bears, who have won a school-record 24 games, will play host Ursinus on Saturday night at 7 p.m. for a berth in the NCAA Division III Final Four.
Rochester led 39-34 with 13:15 left when sophomore Stefan Lewis hit a 3-pointer followed by a basket by classmate Eric Hudson to tie the game a 39-39 with 11:17 left.
Sowers then took over and put the Bears on his back and led them to the Elite 8. He scored an old fashion 3-point play on a driving layup and free throw with 8:58 left. He then hit a 3-pointer before yet another old fashion 3-point play as Coast Guard opened up a 48-39 lead with 7:34 left.
Following one free throw by Rochester to end the Bears 14-0 run, Hudson sank a 3-pointer with 4:13 left and Sowers made one of two free throws as Coast Guard opened its biggest lead of the game at 52-40 with 2:56 left.
Rochester did not go quietly, using an 8-1 spurt in just over a minute, to cut the lead to 53-48 with 1:53 left in the game.
Grant Johnson sank two free throws with 43.1 seconds left and Sowers made two more with 18 seconds left to ice the game and put the Bears one win from the Final Four in Salem, Virginia.
Sowers led the Bears with 15 points while junior Craig Johnson added 12 points and eight rebounds while senior Grant Johnson added 11 points. Senior Jeff Prebeck led Coast Guard with 11 rebounds.
Rochester led by as many as six in the first half as the Yellow Jackets scored six straight for a 19-13 lead with 7:55 left after Lewis had tied the game at 13-13 on a 3-pointer with 10:29 left.
Rochester led 19-13 when Coast Guard used a 9-2 run to retake the lead 22-21 on a layup by Prebeck with 2:57 left in the half. The Yellow Jackets scored the next five points before senior Grant Johnson hit a 3-pointer to beat the buzzer before the half cutting the Rochester lead to 26-25 at the break.
Coast Guard was 18 for 50 from the floor (36 percent) and 6 of 22 from 3-point range while Rochester was 20 of 53 from the field (37.7 percent) while hitting just four of 23 from behind the arc.
Rochester had a staggering record of 120 wins and just 11 losses when holding an opponent to under 68 points and the Yellow Jackets were 18-3 when leading at halftime.
This was the third straight ranked team that the Bears beat in the NCAA Tournament. Coast Guard beat #24 Trinity in the first round, #10 UMass Dartmouth in the second round and now #13 Rochester in the Sweet 16.
The win was the 250th victory at Coast Guard for head coach Pete Barry and his 401st career win. He is the Bears' all-time leader with 250 wins and has a record of 250-203.
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