WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The Coast Guard Academy men's basketball team (1-1) defeated the Southern Vermont Mountaineers (0-2) Saturday in the consolation game of the Williams Tip-Off Tournament, 68-57.
The two teams proved evenly matched off of the opening jump, and neither team was able to pull away throughout the first half. After SVC senior captain Taeshon Johnson (Charlotte, N.C.) hit a nice long ball from the top left part of the key to make it 26-24 in favor of the Mountaineers, the Bears got some momentum from Greg Marshall as he drove to the hoop to tie the game up and then had a beautiful three ball from the top right. Eli Sponseller then took a defensive rebound the length of the court for the Bears to give them a three-point lead.
Johnson, however, refused to go away for the Mountaineers as he had a pretty pull-up jumper from the left elbow to break a nearly three-minute field goal drought for Southern Vermont at the 3:15 mark. Joe Whitman responded for the Bears with a similar shot before Johnson sunk a jumper from the left baseline. The final minutes of the half passed with continued back-and-forth play, and the Mountaineers went into the locker room with the 35-33 lead.
Johnson led the way in the half with 15 points for Southern Vermont while Marshall posted 11 for the Bears.
Out of the break, the two teams once again traded buckets, but Southern Vermont eventually pushed its lead to six behind a pretty long ball and a pair of free throws from sophomore Tavaris Jenkins (Chicago, Ill.) and another pair from sophomore captain Travis Severs (Bennington, Vt.). Ryan McNeil hit a long two for the Bears to end a five-minute scoring drought, and Sponseller hit a set of free throws to pull within two, but Southern Vermont continued to hang on to the lead.
The Bears gained the advantage, however, with 6:31 left in the game. After Marshall finished on a bucket, Coast Guard forced an offensive foul and gained back the momentum. Marshall then finished on the resulting possession before Jimmy Knusden hit a fall-away baseline jumper to take the 55-54 lead and force a Southern Vermont timeout. Out of the break, Jenkins sunk a long three while falling down to take back the lead before David Anderson finished with a pretty spin move in the paint to tie the game back up.
Jenkins's three was the Mountaineers' final bucket of the game, though, as the Bears held them scoreless in the final 5:51 and secured the victory behind hoops from Knusden and Anderson and free throws down the stretch.
Johnson led the way for the Mountaineers with 20 points in the contest; Anderson led all scorers with 24 points.
Southern Vermont takes back to the court on Tuesday night with a 7 p.m. game at Skidmore College, while Coast Guard visits Mitchell College for a 5:30 p.m. tip on Tuesday.