NEW LONDON, Conn.—Senior
Nate Amado (Hanson, Mass.) scored 10 of his game-high 24 points over the final six-plus minutes, including the go-ahead free throws with 21 seconds remaining as visiting Babson College defeated the Coast Guard Academy, 74-72, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's basketball action on Thursday night inside Roland Hall.
Winners of eight of its last 10 games, Babson improves to 11-6 overall and 5-3 in league play. Coast Guard has now dropped three straight games, all by six points or fewer, to fall to 7-10 overall and 3-5 in the NEWMAC.
Amado went 8-of-15 from the floor and 8-of-8 at the free throw line to go along with a game-high eight rebounds and two blocks to lead the Beavers. First-years
Timmy Mulvey (Reading, Mass.) and
Ryan Frauenheim (Manasquan, N.J.) both scored 12 points and fellow rookie
Vaughn Foster (Paramus, N.J.) contributed 10 points, four rebounds and a season-high three assists in the victory.
Senior Declan Rooney (Seattle, Wash.) finished with 20 points and seven rebounds, while first-year Colin Huang (Irvine, Calif.) put up 15 points to go along with three boards and three assists for the Bears.
Despite leading for a total of just 41 seconds in the second half, the Green and White outscored the hosts 17-9 over the final 8:22. A layup by Foster, a three-point play by Amado and a hoop in the paint by Frauenheim erased a 63-57 deficit and gave the Beavers a one-point lead with 5:31 remaining only to see Coast Guard answer back with a 7-2 spurt to go back in front 70-66 on a three-pointer by Huang with 3:34 to go.
Amado responded with a three-point play on the ensuing possession and then followed a bucket by Bears' senior Cameron Brown (Ellicott City, Md.) with a short jumper to cut the Babson deficit to 72-71 with 52 seconds left. Amado blocked Rooney's shot from behind on the other end and then was fouled in transition and knocked down a pair of free throws to make it 73-72 with 21 ticks remaining. Frauenheim followed up a missed baseline floater by Rooney by going 1-of-2 at the charity stripe with 6.2 seconds to play and Brown's desperation three-pointer at the buzzer was off the mark.
The first half featured five ties and nine lead changes with neither team leading by more than five. The Beavers went on an 8-1 run to take a 32-27 advantage on a tip-in by Foster at the 3:37 mark, but Coast Guard closed the stanza with a 15-6 spurt that included a pair of three-pointers by junior Trevor Parks (Oldsmar, Fla.) to go into the locker room up 42-38.
The Bears canned three triples and made five of their first eight shots from the field to take their largest lead of the game at 58-51 on a free throw by senior Ben Yagey (Highlands Ranch, Calif.) with 12:35 to play in the game.
The Beavers shot 43.9 percent from the floor and survived a 3-of-18 effort from three-point range by turning 14 Coast Guard turnovers into 24 points and going 21-of-24 at the free throw line (87.5 percent). The Bears shot 39.3 percent and finished with a 37-30 rebounding advantage.
Babson returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Emerson at 1 p.m., while Coast Guard will travel to Emerson next Wednesday at 7 p.m.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are now 64-28 all-time against Coast Guard and have won 13 of their last 14 games on the road in the series dating back to 2011.
• Babson is now 7-0 on the year when holding its opponents below 40 percent shooting.
• The Beavers are now 2-5 on the year in games decided by five points or less and their win was the first when trailing with under a minute to play in regulation since beating Coast Guard 76-75 on January 18 of last year.
• Amado now has 81 career blocked shots and passed Colin Bradanese '22 for second place on the program's all-time list in addition to passing Mark Teller '98 for 12th place on Babson's all-time scoring list with 1,355 points.
