Dec. 28, 2005

Box Score

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. - After trailing by four points with less than four minutes to play, the Navy women's basketball team scored 16 of the game's final 22 points to post a 71-65 victory over Radford, Tuesday evening in Alumni Hall. Navy snaps a two-game losing streak and improves to 6-4 on the year with the win, while Radford dropped its second-straight contest to fall to 4-5 on the campaign.

"I was very happy with how everyone stepped up down the stretch," said Navy head coach Tom Marryott. "It was a lot of different people making plays on both ends of the floor. We had some big baskets, strong rebounding, good defensive play, drew a lot of fouls and converted at the foul line. We played hard and we played smart."

Radford took a 59-55 lead when Shavon Earp made the first of two free throws with 3:41 left in the game. Navy's Margaret Knap (Jr., Chicago, Ill.) then grabbed the rebound following a miss on Earp's second attempt and quickly raced down the court to score a layup while being fouled. Knap made the free throw to cut the deficit to one point with 3:31 showing on the clock.

A loose ball foul following a Radford missed shot on its ensuing possession sent Sarah Stephens to the line for the Highlanders, but she converted only one of her two attempts from the charity stripe. Ashley Pelzek (Sr., East Longmeadow, Mass.) was fouled on Navy's next possession and drilled both free throw attempts to make the score 60-60 with 2:36 to play.

After Radford missed a three-point field goal attempt, Pelzek found Betsy Burnett (Jr., New Holstein, Wis.) open for a basket to give the Mids a 62-60 lead with 1:46 left to play. Radford again missed a three-pointer, with Lauren Skrel (Sr., Walnut Creek, Calif.) grabbing the long defensive rebound and found Pelzek sprinting ahead of the defense for a layup to make it a four-point Navy lead with 1:23 showing on the clock.

Stephens hit an inside shot to cut the deficit in half with just under one minute to play, but Pelzek returned the advantage to four points by hitting a jumper with 40 seconds left in the game. Kelli Darden was fouled on Radford's next trip down the court, but missed both free throw attempts with 33 seconds to play. Forced to foul, the Highlanders sent Burnett to the line where she made one of two free throws to give the Mids a 67-62 cushion. Burnett atoned for her miss by grabbing the carom on a wayward three-point attempt by Radford and, after being fouled, sinking both free throw attempts with 23 seconds left to play.

Both Skrel and Pelzek made one of two free throw attempts sandwiched around a three-pointer by Radford's Serena White to close out the scoring.

Navy's offense started very slow in the game, missing nine of its first 10 shots from the field to find itself trailing 11-2 less than seven minutes into the game. The Mids went on a 14-2 run over the next five minutes, with eight-straight points scored by Skrel, to take a 16-13 lead with 8:13 left in the half. After leading by as many as six points, Navy went into the locker room holding a 30-28 halftime lead.

The very close second half saw eight ties, 10 lead changes and neither team able to hold more than a four point lead until Navy jumped ahead by eight points with 17 seconds remaining.

"We struggled offensively at the start, but we stayed within the game plan and were able to get back into the game thanks to our defense," said Marryott.

After Navy's slow start on offense, the Mids shot 21-of-48 from the field (43.7%) over the remainder of the game, drilling seven of 14 attempts from behind the three-point line. The Mids also posted a 48-40 advantage on the boards and, despite turning the ball over 20 times in the game, committed only three turnovers over the final 15 minutes of the game. Navy's defense held Radford to 31.4-percent shooting from the field in the second half and forced the Highlanders into 1-of-9 shooting over the final five minutes of the game.

Pelzek tied a career-high for the fourth time this season with five three-point field goals (on six attempts) to lead all players with 24 points. The senior team captain was 3-of-3 from beyond the arc in the second half as she tallied 16 of her points after intermission and accounted for six of Navy's final 16 points. She also hauled in a Navy-best and season-high eight rebounds in the game.

Much of Navy's offense in the first half came from Skrel, who scored 10 of her 13 points during the opening 20 minutes of play. She then dished out four of her five assists and grabbed three of her five rebounds after halftime.

Stevens and Earp totaled 28 of Radford's points, but the duo converted only 10-of-30 shots from the field.

Navy will be back in action Friday night when Navy plays host to UMBC in a 7:30 p.m. contest in Alumni Hall. Radford's next game will be Jan. 2 at VCU.