Nov. 27, 2009

Final Stats

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Whitney York, Whitney Wright and Ashleigh Franklin scored 35 of their combined 38 points after halftime to help rally UTSA to a 69-57 victory over the Navy women's basketball team Friday night at the UTSA Convocation Center in San Antonio, Texas.

The game started off just as Navy had hoped it would with the Mids (5-2) holding a pair of 13-point first-half leads over the Roadrunners (3-2). UTSA held an early 5-3 lead until Navy junior Angela Myers, who was playing in her hometown, scored back-to-back buckets for the Mids. Kristin Bowen (Jr., Monroeville, N.J.) then promptly scored Navy's next 11 points on a trio of three-point field goals and a mid-range jumper to give the Mids an 18-5 lead with nine minutes left in the half.

Navy's lead would again reach 13 points at 31-18 late in the half before the Mids took a 31-21 advantage into the locker room at intermission.

"Things were looking good in the first half," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We had good spacing, were unselfish and were able to get good shots off."

Navy shot 50 percent from the floor in the first half, including 45.5 percent (5-of-11) from behind the three-point line. Conversely, UTSA connected on 24.1 percent of its shots from the field in the first half and shot 41.7 percent (5-of-12) from beyond the three-point line.

Navy's lead in the second half would reach 12 points at 39-27 following a three-point shot from K.C. Gordon (Sr., Vienna, Va.). The Roadrunners would climb back into the game with an 11-0 run and then, after another jumper from Bowen, scored the ensuing eight points to take a 46-41 lead over the Mids with 11:24 left to play in the game.

Myers scored on a layup to pull Navy back to within three points, but a quick 5-0 run by UTSA gave the Roadrunners a 51-43 advantage. The margin remained between five and nine points over the next several minutes until UTSA closed the game on a 5-0 run.

The Roadrunners connected on 6-of-7 three-point shots after halftime to help UTSA shoot 57.1 percent from the field over the final 20 minutes of play. Navy was just 3-of-12 from three-point land in the second half and connected on just 32.3 percent of its field goal attempts in the half.

"I haven't seen a team with the ability to consistently get into the paint against our best defenders and hit three-point shots for an entire half as UTSA did tonight," said Pemper. "They clearly picked up their defensive intensity in the second half and gave themselves opportunities to score with their transition game. They were at their best over the first 10 minutes of the second half. We played both zone and man defense against them and they were still able to penetrate on us."

Navy held a 39-33 advantage over UTSA on the boards in the game. The Mids turned the ball over 22 times in the game (12 in the second half) while the Roadrunners committed 11 turnovers on the night (five in the second half).

The Mids were not helped by their having just four free throw attempts in the entire game. Navy's first trip to the charity stripe came with 6:12 left in the game. By that point in the contest UTSA was 6-of-8 from the foul line before ending the night 12-of-18 from the free throw line.

Bowen would end the game leading all players with a career-high 17 points. The senior was 4-of-8 in three-point attempts and was an overall 6-of-12 from the field. She was joined in double figures by Myers, Gordon and Cassie Consedine (Jr., Bartlesville, Okla.), all of whom tallied 12 points in the game. Consedine also added 10 rebounds and four blocked shots to the Navy effort, while Myers contributed six caroms, five assists and two steals.

"We had some really nice performances by a number of individuals in the game," said Pemper. "That shouldn't be lost in the final score tonight."

For UTSA, York scored all 15 of her points in the second half, Wright scored all 10 of her points after halftime, and Franklin scored 10 of her 13 points over the final 20 minutes of play. The trio would account for 35 of UTSA's 48 second-half points. Navy as a team scored 26 second-half points.

Navy will remain in San Antonio for a Saturday afternoon (3 p.m. EST) game against Western Illinois. Live statistics from the game can be viewed at www.GoUTSA.com(.)