Nov. 19, 2008

Final Stats

Box Score in PDF Format

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Angela Myers (So., San Antonio, Texas) scored six of Navy's final eight points of the game and sank a pair of free throws with 6.8 seconds left to play to help the Navy women's basketball team hold off Winston-Salem State, 53-49, Wednesday night at the C.E. Gaines Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The Midshipmen (2-1) quickly jumped out to an 11-0 lead six minutes into the game. The Lady Rams (0-3) closed the margin to as few as five points at both 11-6 and 15-10, but Navy went into halftime holding a 30-17 advantage.

That 13-point lead became 15 points after Navy's first possession of the second half, and the Mids still led by double figures at 45-35 with 6:32 left to play. The Lady Rams slowly chipped away at the deficit and pulled to within two points at 47-45 with just under two minutes remaining. Erin Edwards (Fr., Hockessin, Del.) was fouled on Navy's next possession and she made the second of her two free throw attempts to push the margin back to three points.

After a missed three-point attempt by WSSU, Myers drove the lane and scored on a layup with 1:11 left to make the score 50-45. The Lady Rams missed another three pointer, then Myers gave the ball right back to WSSU on a poor pass with 40 seconds left on the clock. That led to a Vontisha Woods layup with 37 seconds remaining.

Edwards was again fouled and again she made just the second of her two attempts to boost the lead to four points with 28 seconds showing on the clock. Keoshia Worthy's next shot for the Lady Rams hit the side of the backboard and went out of bounds, giving the ball back to the Mids with 10 seconds left. Whitney Davidson's (Sr., New Oxford, Pa.) ensuing inbounds pass was intercepted, however, which resulted in a layup by Worthy to make it a two-point game with seven seconds left to play.

Myers received the inbounds pass for the Mids and was immediately fouled. She calmly stepped to the line and sank both attempts to make it a two-possession game and seal the road win for the Navy.

"This was a good environment for our players to play in," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We had to keep our poise and stay together to get a win. It was a packed house and the loudest band I have ever heard. I told our team they (WSSU) would have one good run in them and they did. A lot of things could have gone wrong, but we hung on and won."

There were a total of 49 fouls called in the game -- 26 on Navy, 23 on WSSU - which led to a combined 52 free throws being attempted. The charity stripe turned out to be one of the deciding factors in the game as Navy was 20-of-29 (69.0%) in the contest and WSSU was just 8-of-23 (34.8%).

Navy held a 45-28 advantage in rebounding in the game, while the Mids turned the ball over 28 times to 15 turnovers for Winston-Salem State.

Myers finished the game 8-of-8 from the foul line and with a Navy-best 10 points, while she and Cassie Consedine (So., Bartlesville, Okla.) both hauled in nine caroms for the Mids. Leading all players in the game in scoring were Winston-Salem State's Woods and Rene Rector, who both scored 13 points.

"The free throws were big and Angela's drive was big," said Pemper. "Angela is our heart and soul, for sure. I was happy that she stepped up and made those plays.

"It's coming (along for us). I don't think by any means we played great and there weren't a lot of individual performances that were really great, but we got it done."

Navy will remain on the road for the rest of the week as the Mids now travel to New York City for games Friday and Saturday at the Tyler Ugolyn Columbia Classic. Navy will open the tournament Friday at 12 Noon with a game against Texas State, then will face either tournament-host Columbia or Long Island Saturday at 12 Noon or 2 p.m.