Men's Basketball Soars Past Coast Guard

LEICESTER, MASS.--(12/8/09)--Trey Jacobs led all scorers with 26 points and Becker overcame a slow start to beat Coast Guard 67-60 in a non-conference game, the Bears final game of the first semester.

Becker used a 12-0 run scoring the last six points of the first half and the first six points of the second half to take a 44-31 with 16:46 left in the game.

The Bears (3-6) responded with six straight to get the deficit to seven at 44-37 with 13:38 left, but that would be as close as they would get the rest of the way.

Trip Fernandes led Coast Guard, which dropped its fifth straight, with 18 points and eight rebounds while Eric Hudson finished with nine points and a season-high five assists.

Coast Guard jumped out to a 14-2 lead in the first four minutes of the game with Fernandes scoring the first seven points for the Bears.

Becker (2-4) answered later in the half by scoring 14 straight turning an 18-6 deficit into a 20-18 lead with 8:45 remaining in the opening half.

The Hawks took a 28-22 lead following a 3-pointer by Matt Petrides with 6:48 left, the Bears cut the lead to a single point at 32-31 on a 3-pointer by Brett Huntley with 2:27 left before the Hawks ended the half with a pair or treys to take its largest lead of the half, 38-31, in to the break.

Becker shot 51.7 percent in the first half (15-29) while making three of seven from 3-point range while Coast Guard hit 12 of 25 from the floor (48 percent) and four of nine from behind the arc in the opening half. Fernandes was five of six from the floor and had team-highs with 11 points and five rebounds in the first half.

The Hawks shot an even better 63.2 percent in the second half (12-19) to shoot 56.3 percent for the game (27-48) and made four of 11 from 3-point range while the Bears finished 22-50 (44 percent) while making seven of 17 from 3-point range.