Jan. 27, 2010

Final Stats | Photo Gallery

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- American held the Navy women's basketball team to some of its lowest shooting totals of the season in a 62-45 victory over the Midshipmen Wednesday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis. The Eagles improved to 6-0 in league games (13-7 overall) with the win while Navy fell to 3-3 in conference play (11-10 overall) with the loss.

"I think you have to give credit to the American defense tonight," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "They played very inspired tonight."

The opening 10 minutes of the game saw the score tied five times and the lead change hands on five different occasions. After a pair of free throws from Cassie Consedine (Jr., Bartlesville, Okla.) allowed the Mids to close to within one point of the Eagles at 22-21, American responded by scoring nine of the final 11 points of the first half to take a 31-23 lead into halftime.

American quickly expanded its lead to double figures at 35-25 at the start of the second half. The next several minutes saw Navy unable to slice too much into the lead, while American was unable to expand its advantage beyond 10 points. The Mids eventually managed to pull to within four points at 43-39 on a layup from K.C. Gordon (Sr., Vienna, Va.) with a little more than nine minutes remaining in the game.

American's Michelle Kirk scored on a layup of her own to boost the gap back to six points, but that was answered on the other end of the floor by a jumper from Angela Myers (Jr., San Antonio, Texas) that made the score 45-41. Kirk would tally another bucket for the Eagles and then, after a Navy miss, Janelle McDonald scored on a shot from inside of the point for the Eagles. After the Mids missed a field goal attempt for their second consecutive possession, American's Liz Leer scored to put the Eagles up 51-41 with 6:40 showing on the clock. The Eagles would score the next eight points, as well, and their 14-0 run put them up by the score of 59-41 with less than three minutes remaining.

From the span immediately following the Myers field goal with a little more than eight minutes left to play, the Navy offense missed eight of its last nine field goal attempts of the game while the Eagles connected on six of their final 10 shots of the contest.

"We couldn't contain their penetration," said Pemper. "That forced us into situations were we had to help on defense and that took us out of our rhythm."

The 45 points scored by the Mids was the second-fewest tallied by Navy this season (43). Navy's 17 field goals made and its 51 attempts were both the second-lowest totals of the Patriot League season for the Mids, while its shooting percentage of 33.3 percent was the lowest for Navy since the start of conference play. Additionally, Navy's three three-point field goals made and 13 three-point field goal attempts were both season lows for the Mids.

Navy entered the game averaging 7.6 three-point field goals made on 23.5 attempts a game, including 8.6 three-pointers made on 20.6 attempts a game since the start of the Patriot League season.

American, meanwhile, shot nearly 40 percent from the floor for the game, was 4-of-12 from outside of the three-point arc and finished the contest making all 10 of its free throw attempts. The Mids were 8-of-9 from the charity stripe.

American also forced the Mids into twice as many turnovers (15) as the Eagles committed (eight) and held a 40-32 advantage on the glass.

Myers led the Navy offense with 12 points and five assists while adding a team-high eight rebounds. Joining her in double figures for Navy was Gordon, who tallied 10 points. It was the eighth consecutive game in which Gordon has scored in double digits.

For American, Kirk and Leer both scored 17 points while Lisa Strack added 15 points for the Eagles.

Navy will close the first half of the Patriot League season Saturday when the Mids play at Colgate. Tip for the game from Hamilton, N.Y., is slated for 2 p.m.

Patriot League Standings
1. 6-0 American
2. 5-1 Lehigh
T3. 3-3 Navy
T3. 3-3 Army
T5. 2-4 Bucknell
T5. 2-4 Lafayette
T5. 2-4 Holy Cross
8. 1-5 Colgate