WPI 50, Coast Guard 39

Box Score      

New London, CT --- The WPI Women's Basketball team jumped out to a 14-2 lead and never looked back beating Coast Guard 50-39 in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.

WPI (8-4, 4-1) dominated the first ten minutes taking a 14-2 lead with 10:34 left in the first half. The Engineers led 23-14 at halftime.

Coast Guard (3-4, 2-2) rallied in the second half as the Bears used an 11-4 spurt to cut the deficit to 33-29 with 8:07 left with senior Melissa Martinelli (Vero Beach, FL) scoring six of those points. Martinelli, who leads the NEWMAC in scoring with 18.1 points per game, was held to just two points in the first half, but finished with a game-high 15 points to go with nine rebounds.

Junior Melissa Kuhn's (Stoughton, MA) 3-pointer with 2:51 left pushed the WPI lead to 38-31 and the Engineers were 10 for 10 from the foul line in the final 56 seconds, six of those by Elle Fontaine (Franklin, MA) to secure the win.

Fontaine and freshman Caitlin O'Connor (New Hampton, NH) each had 11 points to lead WPI while Fontaine grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.  Kuhn added nine points while point guard Baillie McNally (Mapleville, MA) chipped in with eight. 

Junior Jessica Anderson (Schoolcraft, MI) had a season-high 10 points while freshman Karli Collins (Delavan, WI) had a career-high 10 rebounds to lead the Bears.

WPI was 17 of 54 from the floor (31.5 percent) while making five of 16 from 3-point range.

Coast Guard was 17 for 50 from the field (34 percent) and made two of 12 from behind the arc. The Bears turned the ball over 26 times in the loss but outrebounded WPI 41-31.

WPI closes out its three-game road trip on Saturday at 3pm with a key NEWMAC matchup with Wheaton.  The Engineers (2007 and 2009) and Lyons (2008) have combined to win the last three conference regular season titles are currently tied for second in the loop.  Coast Guard entertains Clark, also at 3pm on Saturday.

Release Courtesy Coast Guard Sports Information