Nov. 12, 2006

Final Stats

Complete Box Score in PDF Format

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy women's basketball team missed 15 of its first 16 shots from the field at the start of the second half to allow Marshall to open up an 18-point advantage over the Mids in an eventual 74-47 victory for the Thundering Herd, Sunday afternoon in Alumni Hall.

"Our struggles on offense put so much pressure on our defense," said Navy head coach Tom Marryott. "Those problems just compounded each other in the second half."

Despite shooting just 31.3 percent from the field and missing 9-of-10 shots taken from behind the three-point line in the first half, Navy (0-2) went into halftime trailing by just four points at 29-25. The Herd (1-0) connected on 52.0 percent of their shots from the field before intermission, but were forced into 13 first-half turnovers.

The game changed over the opening 10 minutes of the second half. While the Navy offense struggled during its 1-of-16 drought from the field, the Herd connected on 7-of-14 attempts from the field and was 5-of-5 from the free throw line during the same span and opened up a 49-32 lead with 9:19 remaining in the game.

The Mids shot just 25.4 percent from the field and made only 3-of-24 shots (12.5%) from behind the three-point line in the game. Making matters worse for the Mids was that they were generally limited to just one shot on most trips down the floor as Marshall hauled in 53 rebounds to Navy's 25.

Navy did do a good job of taking care of the basketball, though tallying just 14 turnovers and forcing the Herd into 25 turnovers.

Lauren Nelson (Jr., Plano, Texas) scored a career-high 13 points in the game for the Mids to share Navy scoring honors with Kate Hobbs (Sr., Wexford, Pa.), while Kalen Kropa (So., Reidsville, N.C.) added nine points, three assists and a career-high three steals to the Navy effort.

Marshall's Modupe Ishola connected on 8-of-9 attempts from the field to total a game-high 17 points.

The Mids will take part in the Seton Hall Basketball Classic this weekend in South Orange, N.J. Navy will open the tournament Friday at 8 p.m. against Massachusetts, then will face either Howard or the tournament-host Pirates Saturday afternoon (1 or 3 p.m.).