New London, CT --- Junior Torie Sutherland (Houston, TX) had a game-best 15 points and a career-high 18 rebounds including the go ahead 3-pointer with 30 seconds left leading Coast Guard to a thrilling 58-57 win over WPI in a key New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game.

Coast Guard improves to 8-7 overall and more importantly 4-4 in NEWMAC play while WPI drops to 11-6 overall and they are now also 4-4 in conference play. 

The Bears split the season series with the win as WPI beat Coast Guard 59-50 on Dec. 3rd to open NEWMAC play.

Coast Guard went 0 for 5 from the foul line in the final 58 seconds, but the trey by Sutherland with 30 seconds broke a 55-55 tie. 

WPI freshman Ama Biney (Worcester, MA) made a pair of free throws with 14 seconds left to cut the deficit to 58-57.

Coast Guard would miss three free throws in the next four seconds with freshman Gill Gerton(Lorton, VA) grabbing an offensive rebound off a miss.

Dani Davis (East Granby, CT) drove to the basket with three seconds left and missed, juniorJessica Larsen (Poway, CA) got the rebound and her shot to win the game was blocked by Gerton.

Coast Guard led by as many as eight in the second half, 47-39 with 12:45 left following a pair of free throws by senior Alexi Howland (Latham, NY) .

WPI would score the next 12 and took its first lead of the game 49-47 on a layup by sophomoreTess Nogueira (Merrimac, MA) with 6:54 left. Junior Jessica Larsen would make a pair of free throws with 6:04 left to cap the run giving the Engineers a 51-47 lead. 

The Bears would answer with eight straight of their own the final six by Gerton.

Sutherland made a layup and Gerton's offensive rebound and put back tied the game 51-51 with 4:45 left. Gerton would make a pair of free throws with 3:30 left and cap the run with a layup with 2:43 left for a 55-51 lead.

Biney scored with 2:14 left before a pair of free throws by senior Rachel Pineda (Shrewsbury, MA) tied the game 55-55 with 1:57 remaining.

In the first half, Coast Guard led by as many as ten, 20-10 with 11:31 left, but WPI would use an 8-0 run later in the half to cut the deficit to 27-26 with 5:33 left. The Bears led 38-33 at the break.

Gerton finished with 13 points and career-high four blocks while senior Leigha Steinbeck (Parker, CO) added nine points.

Howland had seven points and two assists to tie her for tenth on the Bears all-time list with 179 career assists.

Davis led WPI with 14 points to go with six rebounds while junior Haili Welton (Southbury, CT) added 11 points. Larsen led the Engineers with seven rebounds while Nogueira had a game-high five blocks.

Coast Guard shot 38.3 percent from the floor (21-55) while making five of 18 from behind the arc while WPI was 21 of 54 from the floor (38.9 percent) and shot 4 of 16 from 3-point range.

The Bears are back in action on Saturday when the host Wellesley at 1pm while WPI head to MIT for a 2pm start.

Release Courtesy Coast Guard Sports Information