Second-Half Rally Falls Short for Navy

Feb. 13, 2008

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy women's basketball team sliced a 19-point second-half deficit down to two points, but Lehigh's Claire Sullivan blocked a potential game-tying three-point field goal by Kalen Kropa (Jr., Reidsville, N.C.) with less than four seconds to play to allow the Mountain Hawks to escape with a 54-50 victory over the Mids, Wednesday night at Alumni Hall.

Lehigh (14-10, 6-3 Patriot League) opened up a 32-13 advantage 30 seconds into the second half, but Navy (5-19, 1-8 Patriot League) slowly chipped away at the deficit and managed to pull inside of double figures when K.C. Gordon (So., Vienna, Va.) hit a jumper to make the score 42-34 with just over seven minutes remaining in the game. Lehigh soon took a 46-35 lead, but back-to-back buckets by Angela Myers (Fr., San Antonio, Texas) capped a 7-0 Navy run to make the score 46-42 with 2:37 left to play.

A key possession in terms of time more than points promptly took place as Lehigh grabbed four offensive rebounds over the next 46 seconds, but only came away with two points. Melissa Rich missed a jumper, but Tricia Smith grabbed the offensive carom and was immediately fouled. She made the first free throw to give Lehigh a 47-42 lead, but missed the second. Rich then came in and snared the loose ball before missing a jumper of her own 20 seconds later, which was promptly rebounded by Sullivan. After a Lehigh timeout with 1:57 to play, Smith missed a jumper but Rich grabbed another offensive rebound and was fouled with 1:37 remaining. She made the first attempt and missed the second, with Kropa finally gathering in the rebound for the Mids.

Kropa pushed the ball down the floor and found Whitney Davidson (Jr., New Oxford, Pa.) who drilled a 19-foot jumper from the baseline to make it a 48-44 game with 1:26 remaining. The Mountain Hawks took their time in advancing the ball down the floor until Smith drove the lane for a layup with 59 seconds left to play that returned the margin to six points. The ensuing Navy possession saw the ball go into Cassie Consedine (Fr., Bartlesville, Okla.), who was fouled after driving across the free throw lane and attempting a shot. After she made both free throws to cut the deficit down to four points with 51 seconds showing on the clock, Gordon stole the ball for the Mids and was fouled with 49 seconds to play. She went to the free throw line and converted both attempts to make the score 50-48.

Gordon then became tangled up with Erica Prosser prior to the ball being inbounded by Lehigh, which led to a foul and Prosser going to the free throw line with no time being removed from the clock. She made both attempts to give Lehigh a 52-48 lead.

Navy again went inside on its next possession and Consedine made a layup to cut the lead in half with 38 seconds left to play. After a Navy timeout, the Mids elected not to foul as there was an eight-second difference between the game and shot clock. The ploy paid off as Myers picked the pocket of Smith with 12 seconds left, but Kropa was whistled for travelling after gathering in the difficult pass from Myers two seconds later. Now forced to foul, the Mids sent Smith to the line with 10 seconds left where she missed the first attempt but made the second to give the Mountain Hawks a 53-30 lead.

The Mids put the ball into the hands of Kropa who tried the aforementioned three-pointer over the taller Sullivan from the top of the key. Lehigh's Haly Crites picked up the rebound and was fouled with one second showing on the clock. She made the second of the two free throws to secure the victory for the Mountain Hawks.

"It was a great rally by us," said Navy head coach Tom Marryott. "We kept fighting all the way to the end."

Navy found itself in the early second-half hole thanks to an 11-minute span during the first half in which the Mids were outscored 19-0. The Mids began the game strong on both ends of the floor and quickly jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, but Navy turned the ball over 15 times and connected on just 2-of-13 attempts from the field over the remaining 17 minutes of the half to head into the locker room trailing 30-13.

Navy made more field goals (20-19), made the same number of three-point field goals (3) and shot a higher percentage from the floor (43.5%-36.5%) than Lehigh did in the game, but the Mountain Hawks were 13-of-23 from the foul line while the Mids were just 7-of-11 from the charity stripe. The Mids also held a 37-31 advantage in rebounds, but that was negated by Navy committing 27 times on the night and forcing Lehigh into just 19 turnovers.

"The biggest difference between the first and second halves for us was not effort, it was execution," said Marryott. "Offensively, we took much better care of the basketball and gave ourselves the opportunity to get into a rhythm with our shots. We didn't have that in the first half. We also did a better job contesting Lehigh on the other end of the floor. They really had to work for everything they got.

"We need those type of efforts throughout 40 minutes. When a game comes down to basically three points and one possession, that shows how valuable every possession is each time down the floor for the entire game. We can't have lapses at any point."

Davidson scored all 11 of her points during the second half to end the game with Navy scoring honors. She tallied one more point than Consedine did, with the center also adding a career-high 13 rebounds for the Mids.

Smith led all players in the game with 18 points.

Navy will return to Alumni Hall Saturday night when the Midshipmen play host to Lafayette in a 7 p.m. game.

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