BABSON PARK, Mass.—Junior Joey Flannery (Acton, Mass.) led four players in double figures with 26 points and Babson College outscored the visiting Coast Guard Academy 14-4 in overtime en route to a 100-90 victory in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's basketball action on Sunday afternoon at Staake Gymnasium.
With the win, Babson is now 11-5 overall and 5-1 in league play, while Coast Guard drops to 8-8 overall and 2-4 in the NEWMAC.
Junior Isaiah Nelsen (North Andover, Mass.) finished with 22 points and seven rebounds, while classmate Charlie Rice (Barnstable, Mass.) scored a career-high 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting for the Beavers. Sophomore Nick Comenale (New York Mills, N.Y.) matched his career high with 14 points to go along with a career-best seven assists, while junior Sam Bohmiller (Franklin, Mass.) chipped in with nine points and four boards. Fellow junior Matthew Droney (Canton, Mass.) dished out a career-high nine dimes in the win.
Senior Kevin Alvarez (Key Biscayne, Fla.) scored a game-high 30 points to go along with six rebounds and five assists to lead the Bears. Sophomore Ethan Boose (New Philadelphia, Ohio) recorded a double-double with 26 points and a game-high 16 rebounds, while classmate Micah Baldez (Lower Gwynedd, Pa.) finished with 16 points.
The Green and White jumped out to a 13-2 lead less than five minutes into the game, but Coast Guard responded with a 15-3 spurt to take an 18-16 edge on a three-point play by Alvarez midway through the opening half. The Bears took their biggest lead of the first half at 29-25 on with 5:51 to go until halftime, but Flannery scored 11 points during a 17-7 burst that gave Babson a 42-36 lead at the break.
The Bears made nine of their first 12 shots to open the second half and took their biggest lead of the game at 59-54 on a bucket by Boose with 13:12 left. Comenale knocked down a pair of three-pointers as part of an 8-0 run that put the Green and White back in front 62-49 with just under 11 minutes to go. The lead then changed hands 10 times over the next six and a half minutes before the Beavers scored five straight points to go up 83-78 on a free throw by Rice at the 2:11 mark.
Coast Guard senior Ricky Rodriguez (Caracas, Venezuela) banked in a triple to make it a two-point game with 1:05 left and sophomore Darius Adams (Nassau, Bahamas) rebound and put back tied the game at 86 with 13 seconds to go, forcing overtime. Babson dominated the extra session, scoring on its first four possessions to build a 94-88 lead with 2:23 remaining. The Bears cut their deficit to four on two Alvarez free throws, but Droney found Bohmiller for a back-door layup on the following possession to push the Beavers' lead back to six.
The Green and White shot 56.3 percent (36-of-64) overall and went 9-of-18 from beyond the arc on the day. The Beavers also finished with a season-high 24 assists and outscored the Coast Guard bench 24-8.
The Bears shot 42.1 percent (32-of-76), outrebounded the hosts 49-32 and scored 30 second-chance points off of 20 offensive boards.
Babson returns to action on Tuesday when it travels to Clark at 7 p.m., while Coast Guard hosts WPI at 5:30 p.m.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 49-26 all-time against Coast Guard and have won 10 straight in the series going back to 2011.
• Babson is 6-0 this season when shooting better than 50 percent from the field.
• Flannery passed fellow All-American Jim Pierrakos '92 for fifth place on the program's all-time scoring list with 1,609 points. He also became just the fifth player in school history to surpass 1,600 points.
• The Beavers are now 4-5 on the year in games decided by five points or less or in overtime.