Dec. 3, 2008

Final Stats

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Carlee Cassidy and Michelle Kurkowski combined for 62 points to help lead the UMBC women's basketball team to an 85-77 victory over Navy, Wednesday night at the RAC Arena in Baltimore.

The majority of the first half was very close and featured four ties and five lead changes. Kalen Kropa (Sr., Reidsville, N.C.) scored on a layup to give the Mids (4-5) a 29-27 lead with six minutes left to play in the half, but the Retrievers (5-2) scored 15 of the next 17 points to build a 42-31 lead on a Cassidy three-pointer with just under two minutes remaining in the half. UMBC would then go into halftime holding a 45-35 advantage.

Both teams shot the ball very well during the first half. The Mids connected on 53.6 percent of their shots from the field, while the Retrievers converted 51.4 percent of their attempts. Individually, Kurkowski sank 8-of-11 shots from the floor on her way to tallying 20 first-half points.

Navy was able to slice the deficit down to as few as six points several times in the early part of the second half, including at 57-51 on a field goal from Cassie Consedine (So., Bartlesville, N.C.) with 13:23 showing on the clock. UMBC answered with an 8-1 run to take its largest lead of the game at 65-52 with 11:38 left to play.

UMBC still held a lead of nine points at 75-66 with less than three minutes remaining in the game when the Mids started to make a run at the Retrievers. Navy scored seven of the next nine points to pull to within four points at 77-73 on a three-pointer by Angela Myers (So., San Antonio, Texas) with 75 seconds showing on the clock.

Cassidy hit a jumper 20 seconds later to take the margin back six points, but two free throws by Erin Edwards (Fr., Hockessin, Del.), made it a four-point game again. Cassidy was fouled on the next UMBC possession and made two more free throws with 41 seconds left on the clock. Whitney Davidson (Sr., New Oxford, Pa.) answered for the Mids on a layup to cut the margin back to four points with 27 seconds remaining. A pair of free throws by Kurkowski, a missed layup by the Mids and two more free throws by Cassidy closed out the scoring.

Navy slowed down the UMBC offense somewhat in the second half as the Retrievers connected on only 37.5 percent of their shots from the floor. The hot shooting by the Mids continued in the second half, though, as Navy drilled 53.8 percent of its attempts from the field after halftime.

What hurt the Mids throughout the contest was that the Retrievers turned 22 Navy turnovers into 33 points, while Navy scored 12 points off of the 13 UMBC turnovers on the game. Navy also was 11-of-18 from the foul line on the evening, while UMBC connected on 19-of-21 attempts from the line.

"It was good that we were able to put a lot of points on the board and shoot the ball at a high percentage in the game," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We needed to do a better job of taking care of the ball, though, and we needed to have a better team defensive effort on UMBC's two best players."

Cassidy nearly matched the first-half effort of Krukowski in the second half as she totaled 19 points after intermission to finish with a game-high 32 points. Kurkowski, in turn, totaled just 10 second-half points to end the contest with 30.

Five different Mids scored in double figures in the game, with Consedine drilling 4-of-5 three-point field goals to pace Navy with 20 points. The sophomore, who scored the 500th point of her career in the game, also hauled in 12 rebounds and rejected a trio of shots.

Davidson would finish with 13 points, Myers contributed 12 points and five assists, and both Edwards and Morgan Hill (Jr., Portales, N.M.) scored 11 points for the Mids.

Navy will next be in action Friday when the Mids play at Penn in a 3 p.m. game in The Palestra.