NEW LONDON, Conn. — Senior James Welch (Needham, Mass.) scored a game-high 19 points to lead a group of five players who scored in double figures as Babson College upended the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 85-71, Wednesday evening in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's basketball action inside Roland Gymnasium.

With the win, Babson posted its third straight victory and ninth in its last 10 games to improve to 18-6 overall and 11-2 in the NEWMAC while Coast Guard drops to 5-17 overall and 2-11 in the conference.

Welch drained 5-of-11 from three-point range to lead the Beavers, while first-year Nate Amado (Hanson, Mass.) recorded an impressive double-double with 17 points and a season-high 16 rebounds. Graduate student Mitchell Kirsch (Atkinson, N.H.) made 4-of-7 from beyond the arc and finished with 16 points and five assists, classmate Spencer Cline (Mason, Ohio) contributed 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting, and junior Andrew Kirkpatrick (Winnetka, Ill.) chipped in with 10 points off the bench.

First-year Cameron Brown (Ellicott City, Md.) had team and career highs of 16 points and 12 rebounds off the bench for Coast Guard while classmate Declan Rooney (Seattle, Wash.) added 14 points off the bench and junior Madison Maloney (Wilmington, N.C.) added 14 points in the loss.

Babson jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead before the Bears used a 15-6 spurt to take the lead 15-14 with 12:12 left in the half. The Bears would use a 10-2 run to open up their largest lead of the game 27-18 with 7:17 left in the opening half.

The Beavers responded with a 16-5 run, including eight points from Amado and a pair of three-pointers by Welch and Kirsch, to regain the lead 34-32 with 3:31 left in the half. The Beavers led 40-39 at the break.

The Beavers started the half on an 8-2 spurt in the first two minutes of the second half for a 48-41 lead, thanks to a traditional three-point play by Amado and five unanswered points by Kirsch. Brown's jumper with 10:15 left pulled the Bears to within 59-57, but another 8-2 Babson spurt, including treys from Welch and Kirsch, made the score 67-59 with 7:26 left. A Rooney jumper got the Bears to within six points, but Babson pulled away in the last five minutes to secure the win.

Babson was 30-of-67 (44.8 percent) from the field and hit 14-of-32 from 3-point range while the Bears were 28-of-69 (40.6 percent) from the floor and made six of 25 from behind the arc.

The Beavers wrap up the regular season Saturday at MIT at 2 p.m. while the Bears close out the season Saturday at Springfield at 1 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 59-27 all-time against Coast Guard in a series that dates back to the 1972-73 season.
• The Beavers have won 19 of their last 20 games against the Bears, a run that includes 13 victories by double digits and 11 straight wins at Roland Gymnasium.
• The Green and White are 16-3 on the year when shooting at least 40 percent from the field.
• Babson is 12-1 this season and has won 32 of its last 34 games when outrebounding its opponents.
• Amado has scored exactly 17 points in three of the last four games, posting two of his five double-doubles on the season.