Dec. 4, 2009
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy women's basketball team returns home to Alumni Hall this Sunday afternoon when the Midshipmen play host to Penn in a 2 p.m. contest.
Live statistics from Sunday's game will be available at no charge on www.NavySports.com(.) Additionally, a video stream of the game will be available to Navy All-Access subscribers at www.NavySports.com(.) The subscription prices for Navy All-Access, which includes a video stream of every Navy home and all of Navy's Patriot League away games, are $9.95 for a one-month package and $79.95 for a 12-month annual package.
Several promotions also are being offered to fans wanting to attend the game. Free admission to the game will be provided to all fans who bring with them a new, unwrapped to the arena for donation to the Toys for Tots toy drive. Members of the Brigade Sports Complex can receive up to four tickets for $3. apiece if they show their BSC identification card at the Alumni Hall box office. Also, those families who sponsor Midshipmen can receive two free tickets to the game. Sponsor families must contact the Midshipmen Sponsor Office directly to take advantage of this offer.
All non-Department of Defense stickered vehicles will not be allowed access to the grounds of the U.S. Naval Academy. Those fans must park at nearby Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium ($5.) and ride the free shuttle bus to-and-from Alumni Hall.
The Mids (6-3) enter the game looking to bounce back from a 59-51 loss at UMBC Wednesday night. Navy held a pair of eight-point leads over the Retrievers early in the second half, but its offense failed to connect on a field goal attempt for over eight minutes, which allowed UMBC to build a 58-47 advantage.
Navy did manage to connect on eight three-point field goals in the game, but it took a school-record 41 attempts to do so. Ten of the 12 Mids who took to the floor hoisted at least one shot from outside of the three-point line. Conversely, after UMBC missed all eight of its three-point attempts in the first half it connected on 5-of-7 long-range shots during the second half to spark the Retrievers to the victory.
Individually for Navy, K.C. Gordon (Sr., Vienna, Va.) and Cassie Consedine (Jr., Bartlesville, Okla.) both finished the game with nine points and nine rebounds, while Kristen Bowen (Sr., Monroeville, N.J.) also tallied nine points for the Mids.
Navy on the season is outscoring its foes by nearly four points a game (59.9-56.0), but have surpassed 58 points just once over the last five games. Navy's defense has been nearly as good of late as the Mids have surrendered 60 or more points just once during this five-game span.
Consedine continues to lead the Mids in scoring (13.3 ppg), rebounding (9.1 rpg), three-point field goals made (13) and blocked shots (12). Close on her heels is Angela Myers (Jr., San Antonio, Texas), who has posted averages of 11.0 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, while also totaling 12 three-point field goals made, 25 assists and 14 steals. Her latter two tallies lead the Mids.
The Mids and the Quakers met last year at the historic Palestra Arena in Philadelphia for the first meeting between the teams in over a decade. Penn held a late 55-48 lead on Navy before the Mids were able to tie the score at 58-58 with 31.6 remaining in the game. Sarah Bucar, who scored all 16 of her points in the second half, scored on a layup with 19 seconds left to give the Quakers a two-point lead. Kalen Kropa missed a game-tying shot for the Mids with four seconds left, which quickly led to a Navy foul. Bucar made 1-of-2 attempts from the line with 0.1 seconds remaining to give Penn the 61-58 victory.
The win was Penn's second in the six-game series with Navy. The Mids hold a 3-0 advantage over the Quakers in games played in Annapolis, with Sunday's game being the first between the teams on The Yard in 13 seasons.
Penn compiled a 9-19 record last year and ended its Ivy League campaign in a tie for fourth place with a 6-8 record in league games.
The Quakers travel to Annapolis winless through six games this season. Included among their setbacks was a 62-56 defeat Wednesday night at Lafayette, as well as earlier losses to Villanova (44-28), Iowa State (78-38) and Northwestern (61-39).
Penn is being outscored by opponents this season by an average of 17.5 points per game (61.0-43.5 ppg) and is narrowly being outrebounded on the year by less than two boards a contest (36.0-34.2 rpg). The Quakers as a team are shooting 31.4 percent from the field and 18.2 percent from behind the three-point line. Their opponents, meanwhile, are connecting on 41.5 percent of their field goal attempts and 37.0 percent of their three-point shots.
Of the 16 three-point field goals made by Penn on the year, 12 of them have been made by Bucar. She is 12-of-38 from three-point land (31.6%) on the season, while the remainder of the team is a combined 4-of-50 (8.0%) from outside of the arc. Bucar also leads the team in scoring average this season with a mark of 11.2 points per game.
