Tonight the Emerson Lions survived a late-game battle against Coast Guard, pulling away at the end to a 68-55 victory.

The Lions set the tone early in this game, rattling off a trio of threes in the first few minutes, jumping out to a 16-8 lead. After that offensive sucker punch, Coast Guard struggled to find an offensive rhythm for the rest of the half. Even though their opponents were larger, Emerson consistently out hustled them for rebounds. Austin Pinckney in particular terrorized them, to the tune of 20 points and 16 rebounds. The big man bullied his way into the lane at will for put-backs and floaters, and although he struggled to find his range, he did nail a three-pointer in the first half. It was far from a one-man show though; three of Emerson's starters scored double-digits and the others were only one basket away.

Emerson enjoyed a solid lead for most of the second half, at one point going up by as much as 18 on Coast Guard. However, the Bears still managed to come together for a run at the end and nearly succeeded. Maybe the Emerson starters, who had all logged heavy minutes, were gassed at that point, because Coast Guard started to simply run past them for easy layups. Combine that with some struggles from the free-throw line from Emerson, and suddenly Coast Guard found themselves down only eight with a minute to go. This was as close as they would get, though, because they couldn't hit any three point shots down the stretch.

Along with Pinckney, starters Michael Thorpe and Mike Carbone had big nights. Thorpe had 14 points and 9 rebounds to go along with 5 assists and 2 steals, while Carbone continued his hot streak from deep by connecting on 3 three-pointers.

With this win the Lion's rise to 4-7 in the NEWMAC and 10-11 overall.

The Lion's play next at home against Springfield on Feb 14th, game set for 3:00pm.