Feb. 7, 2009
Final Stats
Box Score in PDF Format
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy women's basketball team saw its five-game winning streak come to a close with a 66-54 loss to Bucknell Saturday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis. Navy fell to 5-3 in the Patriot League with the loss, while Bucknell improved to 4-4 in the league with the win.
Navy suffered a loss in the opening minutes of the game when 2008 Patriot League Rookie of the Year Cassie Consedine (So., Bartlesville, Okla.) when down with an injury. The Mids were leading 6-2 four minutes into the game when she rolled her ankle and was forced to sit out the remainder of the game.
Despite her absence, Navy was able to take a 21-15 lead with 6:48 left to play in the first half. Over the rest of the half, however, the Mids turned the ball over five times and misfired on seven of eight attempts from the floor. Conversely, Bucknell connected on 6-of-14 shots from the field, sank four three-point field goal attempts and turned the ball over just twice in closing the half on a 16-2 run that gave the Bison a 31-23 lead at intermission.
"I think the way the first half ended was key," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We missed a good three-point field goal attempt with 11 seconds left and Bucknell made a jumper right before the buzzer. Instead of trailing by three points at the half we're down by eight. That's a big difference."
Navy pulled to within six points of Bucknell at both 33-27 and 35-29 in the early part of the second half. The Bison promptly responded with a 6-0 run that gave them a 41-29 lead with just under 15 minutes remaining in the game. Bucknell would lead by double figures for all but 15 seconds of the remainder of the game.
"Bucknell had too big of a lead over us in the second half," said Pemper. "It was hard climbing all the way back as we had to do."
Bucknell forced Navy into 18 turnovers in the game, 15 of which came as a result of steals by the Bison. Navy, in turn, tallied just six steals and forced 14 Bucknell turnovers on the night. Though Bucknell made just two more field goals (23-21) and one more three-point field goal (8-7) than Navy did in the game, the Bison were 12-of-12 from the foul line while the Mids were just 5-of-7 from the charity stripe.
"We needed to take better care of the basketball tonight," said Pemper. "We shot the ball better in the second half, but we turned the ball way over too many times."
Lauren Schober scored 19 points, grabbed eight rebounds, swiped six steals and dished out five assists for Bucknell in the game, while her teammate Trisha Krewson made 4-of-5 three-point field goal attempts on her way to totaling 18 points and seven boards.
Angela Myers (So., San Antonio, Texas) led Navy with 12 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals. She was joined in double figures by Whitney Davidson's (Sr., New Oxford, Pa.) 11 points, with Kalen Kropa (Sr., Reidsville, N.C.) contributing 10 points, five assists and four rebounds.
Navy will take to the road for a pair of games next week in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. The Mids will first play Wednesday at Lehigh (7 p.m.) before taking on Lafayette Saturday (1 p.m.).
