New London, Conn. - February 21, 2015 - Senior guard Sean Martin (Rindge, N.H.) had a game-high 20 points and became the 29th player in program history to score 1000 points in a career, leading the Springfield College men's basketball program to a 73-51 win over Coast Guard in the Pride's regular-season finale at the Academy.

The Pride, which have won nine of their last ten, improve to 18-7 overall and 10-4 in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) while Coast Guard finishes the season 6-19 overall and 2-12 in conference play. By virtue of a coin flip, Springfield secured the No. 3 seed in the impending NEWMAC Championship Tournament and will play WPI next Saturday at Babson.

Springfield shot 25-of-54 from the field in the victory, shooting 46.3, while Coast Guard was 18 of 58 from the field (31 percent) and made 5 of 19 from behind the arc.

Martin was 5-for-8 from the floor and a perfect 10-for-10 from the free-throw line in scoring his 20 points to finish with 1,000 points exactly. Senior Nick Sienkiewicz (Cranston, R.I.) added 17 points while junior Larry Piretra (Oakland, N.J.) had a game-high 11 rebounds in the win for the Pride.

The Pride took an early 8-0 lead after a lay-up from Martin, but the Bears would climb back into the contest when Kevin Alvarez (Key Biscayne, Fla.) converted back-to-back three-pointers to even the score at eight apiece with 13:22 remaining in the opening half.

From there, Springfield went on an 11-2 run, capped off by a lay-up from Alex Garstka (Westfield, Mass.) on a nice feed from Martin to give the Pride a 19-10 lead with 10:07 remaining in the first half, forcing a Coast Guard timeout.

Springfield led 32-22 at halftime as Martin led the way with 14 first half points while Piretra had ten rebounds in the first half.

Coast Guard would make just a pair of field goals in the first 12 minutes of the second half as Springfield pushed the lead to 57-30 on Martins steal and basket in transition with 9:02 left.

Springfield held a 60-31 lead after Sienkiewicz canned a triple, before a pair of free-throws from Josh Altman (Rockport, Mass.) gave the Pride a 66-33 lead with 5:39 remaining. 

The Pride would empty the bench in the waning moments of the contest, cruising to a 22-point victory.