Brickley, Shoemaker both post double-doubles in the loss

NORTON, Mass. – The Wheaton College women's basketball team had its eight-game winning streak snapped on Saturday afternoon inside Emerson Gymnasium as Coast Guard Academy claimed a 72-65 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) victory over the Lyons.

Junior guard Rebecca Arnone (Litchfield, N.H./Campbell) paced the Blue and White with 18 points and three assists in 29 minutes off the bench. Most of Arnone's damage came in the second half as she guided Wheaton's comeback bid going 4-for-7 from beyond the arc and 2-2 at the free throw line.

Senior forward Abbie Brickley (Sandy, Utah/Skyline) registered her team-leading eighth double-double of the season with 15 points and 17 rebounds, while junior forward Kiley Shoemaker (Fayetteville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius) produced her fifth double-double of the 2014-15 campaign with 12 points, ten rebounds, three blocks, three assists and a steal.

Senior guard Laura Pierce (Hampstead, N.H./Pinkerton Academy) also chipped in with three points, a game-high nine assists and two rebounds.

Coast Guard junior guard Torie Sutherland (Houston, Texas/Clear Lake) led four Bears in double-figures with 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. Classmate Meghan Fornaro (Charlton, Mass./Shepherd Hill) contributed 20 points and team-highs in rebounds (8) and assists (6), while senior guard Alexi Howland (Latham, N.Y./Central Catholic) and first-year forward Gill Gerton (Lorton, Va./Bishop Dennis J. O'Connell) both tallied ten points each.

In the second half, Sutherland scored the first basket of the final stanza to give Coast Guard its largest lead of the game, 44-27, before Arnone and the Lyons manufactured a 13-4 run to bring the game within eight points (48-40, 14:06).

Arnone jump-started the spurt with a three-pointer at 18:20 and senior guard Kirsten Ferrari (Lynn, Mass./Saint Mary's) followed with a trey of her own to cut into the deficit at 44-33. After a layup by senior guard Leigha Steinbeck (Parker, Colo./Chaparral) bumped the Bears' lead back to 46-33, Brickley answered with two-straight layups to make it a three-possession game at 46-37.

Arnone went on to drain three more treys to pull Wheaton within single digits on all three occasions (48-40; 52-43; 54-46), but Coast Guard had an answer for every push including the Blue and White's final run with under ten minutes to play in the contest.

Down by 13 (59-46) with 8:55 remaining, Wheaton used a 10-2 run over a 3:06 span to slice into its double-digit gap on the scoreboard and bring the deficit within five points (61-56) at the 5:49 mark. Shoemaker led the charge with five points, including a three-pointer from the top of the arc, while Pierce drained a trey at 8:12 and Brickley also factored into the run with a fast break layup at 8:47.

Howland responded for Coast Guard with a three-pointer with 3:38 left to play (64-56) and the Bears held on for the win despite seeing their lead fall to a two-possession contest (66-60) late in the matchup (2:27).

Coast Guard fashioned a 45-39 differential on the boards, which included 23 offensive rebounds, a 22-5 margin in points off turnovers and a 34-28 gap in points in the paint. The Bears only committed six turnovers in the game and assisted on 16-of-28 made baskets.

Wheaton (13-6, 9-2 NEWMAC) hosts Pine Manor in a non-conference matchup next Wednesday at 6 p.m. Coast Guard (11-7, 6-4 NEWMAC) welcomes Albertus Magnus to its campus on Monday, February 2 at 7 p.m.

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