Navy Seniors Carry Mids to Basketball Victory

Feb. 21, 2007

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy senior class celebrated its final regular season home game by combining for 41 points in a 65-48 victory over American, Wednesday night in Alumni Hall.

The victory moves Navy into a fourth-place tie in the standings with the Eagles and Lafayette, with all three teams having posted a 5-8 record in the league with one game remaining. Navy's overall record also improved to 11-16 on the year, while American's fell to 10-18.

"I'm very happy for our seniors," said Navy head coach Tom Marryott of Betsy Burnett (New Holstein, Wis.), Margaret Knap (Chicago, Ill.), Carly Meyer (Orlando, Fla.) and team captain Kate Hobbs (Wexford, Pa.). "I'm happy they all played well in front of their families and I'm happy they contributed a great deal to our victory.

"We had an emotional game Sunday against Army, and this was another emotional night for our seniors. It was good to see us play better tonight under those circumstances."

Navy shot 42 percent from the field and held American to a 23-percent effort in the first half as the Mids slowly built a 36-21 lead at intermission. After holding a slim lead for most of the first half, the Mids closed the half with a 14-4 run to take the 15-point advantage at halftime.

The Mids soon took their largest lead of the game at 47-31 with just under 14 minutes left in the contest. The Eagles promptly sliced the margin in half over the next four minutes, then made it just a six-point game at 53-47 with 4:31 remaining when Nicole Ryan drilled a three-point field goal.

Navy's next possession saw Meyer respond by connecting on one of her four three-point field goals on the night to give the Mids a nine-point cushion. From there, the Navy advantage hovered between eight and 13 points until American's Nicole Ryan made a trio of free throws with 32 seconds remaining for what proved to be the final points of the night.

"Carly's three-pointer was the basket of the game," said Marryott. "You could see she really wanted the ball at that time, so we gave it to her and she buried a huge triple for us."

Both teams made 21 free throws in the game, with the Mids attempting 29 foul shots and the Eagles 28. The Mids attempted nearly half of their free throws over the final 3:12 of the game as Navy converted 9-of-14 attempts from the line during that span to seal the victory.

Navy shot 37.3 percent from the field in the game and made six three-pointers, while American connected on 29.6 percent of its shots and finished with five three-point field goals. The Navy defense finished the night with six blocked shots, with Meyer contributing three and Hobbs a pair.

Neither team took very good care of the basketball, with Navy committing 20 turnovers and American 18 in the game. The Mids tallied 10 steals to seven for the Eagles, and also held a 42-36 advantage on the glass.

Navy tied a season high by having four players -- including three seniors -- score in double figures. Meyer's 14 points paced the team, with Hobbs adding 13 and both Knap and Kalen Kropa (So., Reidsville, N.C.) finishing with 10 points. Meyer narrowly missed a double-double as she finished with nine rebounds, while Hobbs hauled in seven boards and Burnett five.

Navy will close its regular season Saturday at Colgate, a team Navy dropped a 55-44 decision to a few weeks ago in Annapolis. A victory by the Mids would move Navy into a fourth-place tie in the final league standings with the winner of the Lafayette at American game, while a loss could drop Navy to as low as seventh place.

"Saturday is a huge game for us," said Marryott. "We have talked all year about being able to play back-to-back solid games, and we need to do that and carry some momentum with us into the tournament."

While he was looking ahead to the end of the regular season and the impending league tournament, Marryott's final thoughts on the night were of his four-member senior class.

"A lot of people come to the games or follow the team and say how proud they are of the seniors for how they play on the court, and I am too. But I'm around them every day and because of that I am able to see so many more reasons to be proud of them for what they do and accomplish off the court, as well."

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