Nov. 14, 2007

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A first-half closing 24-2 run sparked the Navy women's basketball team to a 71-50 victory over Howard Wednesday night in Alumni Hall.

The Lady Bison (0-4) jumped out to a 20-10 lead over the Mids (1-3) with 13:41 remaining in the first half, but the Mids scored 24 of the final 26 points of the half to take a 34-22 advantage at halftime.

Cassie Consedine (Fr., Bartlesville, Okla.) scored seven points for the Mids during the run, including the three-pointer that put Navy up for good at 25-22, with Morgan Hill (So., Portales, N.M.) and K.C. Gordon each adding six points and Kalen Kropa (Jr., Reidsville, N.C.) contributing five points for the Mids during this stretch.

The start of the second half saw Howard quickly score a pair of baskets over the opening 30 seconds to cut the margin down to eight points, but Consedine and Hill soon connected on back-to-back jumpers to increase the Navy lead back to 12 points. The Mids would lead by double figures over the remainder of the game.

After falling behind by the score of 20-10, Navy outscored Howard 61-30 over the remainder of the game.

Navy shot a blistering 59.1 percent from the field in the game, the best shooting night for the Mids during the five-year tenure of head coach Tom Marryott and the 12th-best mark in school history, while drilling 7-of-14 three-point field goal attempts and sinking 12-of-14 attempts from the foul line. In contrast, Howard connected on just 30.3 percent of its shots from the field, made just 4-of-21 three-point attempts and sank only 6-of-13 shots from the foul line.

Additionally, Navy held a 43-25 advantage over Howard on the glass.

Hot shooting, a strong defense and controlling the boards were needed by the Mids as Navy turned the ball over 33 times in the game. However, Navy allowed the Lady Bison to score just 20 points off of those 33 miscues, while in turn the Mids scored 20 points of their own following 19 Howard turnovers.

"Despite three losses, I thought we played very good defense during our opening weekend of the season," commented Marryott on the Mids holding Rice, Winthrop and North Texas to an average of 55.3 points per game last weekend. "Numbers wise, our offense was a little frightening during those three games (Navy averaged 43.3 ppg), but in looking at the tape later we saw that a lot of us either not taking or missing open shots. Tonight, when we had the open shot we took it and more often than not it went in."

Consedine scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to record her third double-double in four games this year. She also swatted away five shots to tie the Navy freshman class record she set last weekend against Winthrop and bring her four-game total to 14 blocks. The Navy record for the most blocked shots tallied by a freshman for an entire season is 21.

Consedine was one of four Mids to score in double figures tonight. Hill, who scored 21 points all of last season and tallied 18 points during the opening three games of the season, poured in 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field. Additionally, Kropa added 12 points and Gordon scored 10 points.

The Mids were balanced in other statistics, as well, with four players grabbing six or more rebounds and five dishing out four assists.

Howard was led offensively by Shannon Carlisle's 13 points and by Asha Santee's 12 points.

Navy will next play host to Rider Sunday at 2 p.m. in Alumni Hall. An audio and video stream of the game will be available to Navy All-Access subscribers.