Nov. 21, 2008

Final Stats

Box Score in PDF Format

NEW YORK, N.Y. - An early 23-5 run by Texas State provided enough of a cushion for the Bobcats to defeat the Navy women's basketball team 77-58, Friday afternoon at the Levien Gymnasium on the Columbia campus in New York City.

Texas State (1-2), the defending Southland Conference regular season champion, moves on to the championship game of the Tyler Ugolyn Columbia Classic Saturday at 2 p.m., while the Midshipmen (2-2) will play in Saturday's 12 Noon consolation game. The opponents for the two respective schools will be determined by the outcome of the Columbia vs. Long Island game that is slated to begin at 6 p.m. Friday night.

Navy quickly scored the opening five points of the game, but that advantage soon evaporated as Texas State scored the next eight points as part of a 23-5 run that gave the Bobcats a 23-10 lead midway through the opening half. The Midshipmen were able to slice the margin down into as few as six points at 23-17 with 7:51 left to play in the half, but Texas State scored the next six points to push its advantage back to 12 points. Navy pulled to within single digits at both 29-21 (5:35) and 31-23 (4:00) before heading into the locker room at halftime trailing 37-28.

The start of the second half saw Texas State twice take a double-digit lead only to see Navy pull to within nine points at both 40-31 and 42-33. The Bobcats scored the ensuing nine points to start a 16-5 run that gave them their largest lead of the game - 58-38 - with 11 minutes left on the clock. After the teams traded buckets, however, Navy went on a 10-0 run of its own to cut the 20-point gap in half with 7:15 showing on the clock.

Cassie Consedine (So., Bartlesville, Okla.) scored three points on a basket and foul shot to start the run for the Mids, with a Whitney Davidson (Sr., New Oxford, Pa.) three pointer and two inside field goals made by K.C. Gordon (Jr., Vienna, Va.) completing the effort for Navy.

Texas State would miss a shot from inside of the paint on its next possession, but Angela Myers (So., San Antonio, Texas) had the ball stolen from her by Ashley Cole, who went in to score on a layup for the Bobcats. That basket only stalled the Navy run, though, as the Mids scored three consecutive points on free throws to make the score 62-53 with 4:50 left to play. Emily Lyren (Sr., Wadsworth, Ohio) promptly stole the ball for Navy on the ensuing Texas State possession, and the Mids quickly found Gordon underneath the basket. She pump faked to get her defender in the air and made the layup while being fouled, but she was called for traveling to wipe out her effort that had the potential to make it a six-point game with 4:10 showing on the clock.

"That play seemed to be our last gasp in the game," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "I thought we did a great job of battling back into the game. We were close to cutting it down to six points and then the pressure is on them."

The Bobcats came away empty again on their next time down the floor, with the Mids scoring one point on a free throw by Myers on their ensuing possession to make the score 62-54 with 3:55 left to play. Texas State would score on its next four possessions to push the lead back to 15 points with two minutes remaining in the contest.

Both teams shot the ball very well in the game. Texas State converted 45.7 percent of its shots from the floor, with Navy shooting 40.8 percent from the field. Though those marks were very similar, the Bobcats were 32-of-70 from the floor while the Mids were 20-of-49. Texas State also held a slight edge on the glass, grabbing 39 rebounds to 33 for the Mids, and the Bobcats scored 30 points after Navy's 20 turnovers with the Mids tallying 13 points following 12 Texas State turnovers.

"Texas State made some great shots, they have good athletes and beat us on the boards," said Pemper. "We turned it over too much in the game, but it wasn't too bad in the second half. I think we had only seven turnovers when the game was still in question. We do have to take better care of the ball and credit to Texas State, they took 70 shots and really pushed it down the floor. While that wasn't the determining factor in the game, it did hurt us."

Navy's offense was pretty balanced in the game as four Mids tallied nine or more points. Leading the way was Davidson with a career-high tying 18 points, followed by Consedine and Morgan Hill (Jr., Portales, N.M.) with 10 points apiece and Gordon recording nine points. Gordon also grabbed a Navy-best seven caroms in the contest.

"We're trying to be a team with a lot of threats and players who are looking to catch and shoot," said Pemper. "Overall I liked our shot selection and we did shoot the ball decently. They just shot it better."

Ashely Cole led all players in the game with 23 points.