New London, Conn. — February 8, 2012 — Spurred by a career-high 28 points from Kelly Slattery, the Springfield College women’s basketball team defeated the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 56-47, this evening at Merriman Gym. It was SC’s ninth straight victory over the Bears.

With the win, the Pride raises its record to 12-10 overall, and 8-7 in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference. Coast Guard, meanwhile, falls to 5-15 overall, 1-14 in the conference. Thus Springfield is able to maintain its fifth-place standing in the league.

A senior center/forward from Somers, Conn., Slattery scored 12 of her 28 points by halftime, when SC had secured a 28-25 lead. It was just three games ago, in a 60-57 overtime win at Wellesley when Slattery had scored her previous career-high of 27 points.

Coast Guard jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead in this contest after just four and a half minutes of play on the strength of three threes. But Springfield ran off a 7-0 spurt thee minutes later, knotting the score at 9-9. SC suffered a set-back, however, when junior center Emily Walker (East Lyme, Conn.) apparently suffered some sort of knee injury. With 12:32 left in the half, Walker left the game, and would not return.

The Bears took a 15-13 lead, but SC tallied eight straight points to inch ahead, 21-15. Freshman forward Jamie Waterman (Jasper, Ga.) hit a put-back with less than a minute left in the half to cut the margin to one, 26-25. But sophomore center Rachel Landon (Chaplin, Conn.) made a lay-up with 20 seconds to go to allow SC to take a three-point lead into the half.

Besides Slattery’s 12 at this point, senior guard Andrea Butler (Cohoes, N.Y.) chipped in with eight points of her own. Butler would be the only other double-figure scorer for the Pride with 11 points. She also added seven rebounds.

Three minutes into the second half, sophomore guard Kaitlin Ward (Saline, Mich.) cut the SC lead to one at 30-29. But that was destined to be the only time Coast Guard would get it that close. For the remainder of the game, SC’s lead would be between three and the final margin of nine points.

With three minutes left, following a pair of freshman guard Alexi Howland (Latham, N.Y.) free throws, it was still just a four-point game at 50-46. SC would make a bunch of free throws of its own, however, to seal the win, including two final free throws by Slattery with 8.7 seconds left to make it 56-47.

Slattery also added a team-high eight rebounds, while shooting 9-of-17 from the floor.

For Coast Guard, Howland led with 12 points.