Dec. 10, 2010
Final Stats
PRINCETON, N.J. -- The defending Ivy League-champion Princeton women's basketball team held Navy without a field goal for nearly nine minutes of the second half to allow the Tigers to open up a double-digit lead on its way to posting a 74-61 victory over the Midshipmen Friday night at Jadwin Gym in Princeton, N.J.
"We played with a lot of toughness tonight and we really battled," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "I think player-for-player Princeton has the better offensive players, but our toughness and pride of wanting to play well came through. We really competed well against the team that I think is the best one on our schedule. It really came down to just that one second-half stretch for us."
The offenses dictated the first 20 minutes of play. Navy (5-5) shot an impressive 57.7 percent from the floor in the first half, but Princeton (6-2) bettered that with a mark of 61.5 percent. The Tigers would open up an early nine-point lead of 20-11 only to see Navy slowly chip away at the margin and use a 10-2 run to take a 34-31 lead with three minutes left to play. Princeton scored eight of the next nine points, but a three-point field goal from Angela Myers (Sr., San Antonio, Texas) at the first half buzzer pulled Navy to within 41-38 at intermission.
The trey from Myers ended a run where she tallied 10 of Navy's final 12 points of the half.
"We had a terrific first half," said Pemper. "We were down by three points, but it has been uncommon for us to score 38 points in a half and it has been common for Princeton to score 41 points.
"Angela was a great leader for us right out of the gate. She was aggressive and looked for her shot and that opened things up for our other players."
Princeton still held a three-point lead at 49-46 following a field goal from Audrey Bauer (Fr., Lake Zurich, Ill.) with 14:34 left in the second half. But that would be the last field goal for the Mids until Alix Membreno (Fr., Loxahatchee, Fla.) made a jumper with 5:50 remaining on the clock that made the score 65-50. During that span the Mids missed all eight of their field goal attempts and turned the ball over six times. Conversely, Princeton made 7 of 14 field goal attempts and committed just two turnovers over that stretch of play.
"Our players said after the game that they never got tired, but they did get mentally fatigued by Princeton," said Pemper. "That was when the turnovers started to happen."
The Princeton cushion would grow to as many as 20 points (74-54) before Navy closed the game by scoring the last seven points.
After its strong start to the game shooting wise, the Mids cooled off to a mark of 28.1 percent from the field in the second half. Princeton would shot 45.2 percent from the floor after halftime. While Navy held a slight advantage on the glass (34-32), the Mids did turn the ball over 16 times while forcing Princeton into 11 turnovers.
Myers, who scored 15 first-half points, paced the Mids with 21 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Cassie Consedine (Sr., Bartlesville, Okla.) tallied 14 points, while Membreno scored 11 points for the Mids. Additionally, Jade Geif (Fr., Lakeview, Minn.) scored eight points for Navy.
"It was nice to see Jade receive some touches tonight," said Pemper. "She only had one field goal attempt with a couple of free throws in the last game (against Mount St. Mary's), so we wanted to get her more involved tonight and we went inside to her in the first half. She made four of the six shots she attempted in the first half, and to Princeton's credit they changed defensive players on her after halftime. This is the first time we have seen Jade be this aggressive. She also had a nice kick-out on a play for an open shot by Audrey. That play showed a lot of growth from her.
"Alix also did a nice job tonight. It is great experience for all of our players to go up against a team as strong as Princeton is."
Navy will now take a break for final exams before closing out its pre-holiday slate of games Dec. 21 when the Mids play host to UMBC.
