Dec. 2, 2009

Final Stats

BALTIMORE, Md. - UMBC's offense connected on 5-of-7 attempts from beyond the three-point line in the second half while its defense held the Navy women's basketball team to a pair of field goals in the last nine minutes of the game to post a 59-51 victory over the Midshipmen Wednesday night at the RAC Arena in Baltimore.

Navy (6-3) held a slim 24-22 lead over UMBC (4-2) at halftime as the Midshipmen forced the Retrievers to miss all eight of their three-point attempts in the first half.

UMBC quickly scored the first four points of the second half, but Navy scored the ensuing 10 points to build a 34-26 lead two minutes into the half. Cassie Consedine (Jr., Bartlesville, Okla.), who was held scoreless in the first half, tallied seven of Navy's 10 points during the run. The Mids would again hold an eight-point lead at 38-30 following another Consedine bucket before the Retrievers tallied the next eight points to tie the score with 12:50 left on the clock.

Navy would soon regain the lead and take a 44-40 advantage on a three-point field goal by K.C. Gordon (Sr., Vienna, Va.), but that would turn out to be the last field goal by the Mids over the next eight minutes of play.

UMBC quickly scored the ensuing seven points to take a 47-44 lead, with its run stopped by a pair of free throws from Kristin Bowen (Sr., Monroeville, N.J.) that made the score 47-46 with 7:25 left to play. The Retrievers would go on to score 11 of the next 12 points to take a 58-47 advantage with just over two minutes remaining in the game.

While Navy missed 13 consecutive shots from the floor - which included nine three-point field goal attempts -- during its drought, UMBC was 4-of-7 from the field, 3-of-3 in three-point attempts and 6-of-9 from the foul line over the same span.

"It would be easy to say that we didn't make shots, they made big shots and we had different personnel out on the floor," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "The reality is, and I hope our young team learns this after tonight's game, is that we didn't have a single player play well. We didn't have the mental toughness to win this game and we didn't defend UMBC enough the way we needed to in order to win the game."

Navy ended the game 8-of-41 (19.5%) from beyond the three-point arc in the game. That was not only a season high for three-point attempts by the Mids (by 13 shots), it also was a Navy record for the most three-point shots attempted in a game by the Mids. The previous record for three-point shots by a Navy team was 36, set in a January, 1992, game against Bucknell.

The Mids also were held to a season-low field goal percentage of 26.9 percent on the night.

After shooting 32.1 percent from the field in the first half, UMBC shot 47.8 percent from the floor in the second half. The Retrievers also were 10-of-15 from the charity stripe during the second half.

Consedine and Gordon both finished the game with nine points and nine rebounds. Joining the duo with a team-best nine points in the game was Bowen, while Angela Myers (Jr., San Antonio, Texas) tallied eight points, five rebounds and four assists for the Mids.

UMBC's Carlee Cassidy and Chelsea Barker both scored 15 points in the game, while Tope Obajolu added 12 points and 14 caroms.

Navy's next game has the Mids playing host to Penn Sunday at 2 p.m. in Alumni Hall.