2/19/2005 - Women's Basketball
Mids Upset Mountain Hawks
Abi Campbell scored 16 points and made four three-point field goals against the Mountain Hawks. |
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Navy connected on five-of-six free throw attempts over the final 50 seconds of the game to hang on for a 64-59 victory over Lehigh, Saturday afternoon in a Patriot League women's basketball game at Alumni Hall. The victory ends an eight-game losing streak for the Mids against the Mountain Hawks, and improves Navy's league record to 5-7 with a pair of games left during the regular season. The loss dropped Lehigh's league record to 9-3.
"I was very pleased with our effort today, especially with this being exam week for the players," said Navy head coach Tom Marryott. "With the amount of work the girls put into their studies this week, for them to give the type of effort they did today is amazing. Our effort was as good as it has been all season."
Lehigh held its largest lead of the game at 48-43 with just over nine minutes left to play when the Mids went on a 10-0 run to reclaim the lead with 5:50 left on the clock. Team captain Abi Campbell (Sr., Richmond, Va.) started the Navy run with a steal and a layup, followed by a pair of free throws on Navy's next possession. The teams combined for three-straight turnovers, then Navy's Carly Meyer (So., Orlando, Fla.) was fouled and converted both free throw attempts to give Navy a 49-48 lead with 7:12 remaining.
Meyer would grab a defensive rebound on Lehigh's next possession, then promptly made a layup off of a nice backdoor cut and pass from Betsy Burnett (So., New Holstein, Wis.) the next time down the floor. Lauren Skrel (Jr., Walnut Creek, Calif.) followed with a steal at midcourt and took the ball the rest of the way for a layup to give Navy its 53-48 advantage.
Navy would still hold a 55-50 lead with 4:34 to play when Lehigh scored on back-to-back layups to cut the Navy advantage to one point at 55-54 one minute later. Campbell would soon drill her fourth three-point field goal of the afternoon to give Navy some breathing room at 58-54 with 2:11 left to play.
Navy would again hold a five-point lead at 59-54 after Skrel made the first of two free throw attempts with 1:27 to play. Lehigh's Jessica DePalo cut the margin to three points on its next possession, then Skrel made the second of two free throw attempts to give the Mids a 60-56 lead with 50 seconds to play.
That margin was quickly cut to one point when Sara Ellis drilled a three-point field goal for Lehigh with 36 seconds remaining in the game. After a Lehigh timeout, Navy struggled to advance the ball up the court and eventually both teams grabbed a loose ball at the Lehigh free throw line. The possession arrow was pointing Navy's way and the Mids inbounded the ball with 27 ticks left on the clock. Forced to foul, Lehigh sent Nikki Curtis (Sr., Jacksonville, Fla.) to the line with 25 seconds left, where she made both attempts to push the lead back to three points. Lehigh missed a pair of three-point field goal attempts and was forced to again send Curtis to the line with four seconds to play. She again calmly made both attempts to seal the victory.
"I thought Nikki and Abi really led a great defensive effort today," said Marryott. "Lehigh has such good shooters. They hit a lot of tough shots, but we challenged them on every shot and made them work for everything."
After converting 6-of-11 three-point field goal attempts during the first half, the Mids cooled off somewhat from long range after halftime but still made eight triples in the game and shot 42.1-percent from outside the arc. The Mids ended the day shooting 45.8-percent from the field, while Lehigh made 45.3-percent of their shots, but were only 3-of-13 from behind the three-point line. Navy missed its only two free throw attempts during the first half, but made 12-of-15 attempts during the second half. The Mids also outrebounded Lehigh, 32-26, which held offset 22 Navy turnovers. Lehigh totaled 16 miscues in the game.
Campbell shot 5-of-7 from the field and 4-of-5 from behind the three-point line to lead Navy with 16 points in the game, while Curtis totaled 12 points and a game-high six rebounds. Skrel finished the game with nine points and eight assists.
The Mids will close their regular season with a pair of games this week. Navy will play Wednesday at Lafayette (7 p.m.), then will play host to American Saturday in Alumni Hall (1 p.m.). Navy enters the final week of the season tied for fifth place with Colgate.
