2/23/2005 - Women's Basketball
Navy Women's Basketball Team Loses At Lafayette
EASTON, Pa.-Kristin Doherty led four Leopards in double figures with 16 points as the Lafayette women's basketball team (5-21, 3-10 in the Patriot League) upset Navy (9-17, 5-8 in the Patriot League), 68-58, at the Kirby Sports Center Wednesday night.
The Mids, coming off an upset win of second-place Lehigh on Saturday, were paced by senior Nikki Curtis who poured in a career-high 28 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
"We were not ready to play, it's as simple as that," said Navy head coach Tom Marryott. "We had poor outside shooting throughout the game and our defense let us down in the second half. We didn't take charge of the game when we had a chance. Lafayette had us on our heels and they could do whatever they wanted offensively."
The first half was a back and forth affair that saw seven ties and seven lead changes. Curtis scored 15 first-half points to pace the Mids.
Curtis started the second half on fire, scoring eight of Navy's first 10 points as the Mids started the second stanza on a 10-4 run to take a 37-31 lead.
The Leopards would answer Navy's run with one of their own, outscoring the Mids 18-3 over a six-minute span to take a commanding 53-43 lead. Doherty and Lindsay Myers had six
points apiece for the Leopards.
Navy battled back and cut the Lafayette lead to three at 55-52 with 5:03 to go on a jumper by Curtis, but then went stone cold from the field missing six straight field goal attempts and two front ends of one-and-ones from the charity stripe as the Leopards surged to a 63-52 lead and went on for the 68-58 win.
Lauren Skrel was the only other Midshipmen in double figures as she scored 13 points and had five steals. The Mids struggled from the floor, making just 21 of their 60 field goal attempts (35 percent) and five of their 19 (26 percent) three-point field goal attempts.
Even with the loss the Mids are still tied for fifth place in the Patriot League standings with Colgate, who lost at home tonight to Army, 71-69. Navy could still finish fifth or six in the final standings depending on the outcome of Saturday's games.
A victory over American on Saturday would give the Mids a sweep of the season series and guarantee the Mids the fifth slot in the standings and a date with American next Thursday night in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament at Holy Cross.
A Navy loss and a Colgate win over Bucknell would give the Raiders the fifth seed, Navy the sixth seed and Bucknell the seventh seed and the Mids would play either American or Army at Lehigh on Thursday night. A Navy loss and a Colgate loss to Bucknell would give the Bison the fifth seed, Navy the sixth seed and Colgate the seventh seed and the Mids would still play either American or Army at Lehigh.
