Dec. 21, 2010
Box Score
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- UMBC scored the last 12 points of the game to rally for a 65-56 victory over the Navy women's basketball team Tuesday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.
"It is unfortunate because I thought we played well enough to win the game," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We had a lot of players play really well. I'm disappointed for the team."
Navy (5-6) connected on its first two shots of the game, but then missed its next nine attempts from the floor. That allowed UMBC (5-7) to build an early 10-4 advantage seven minutes into the game. Audrey Bauer (Fr., Lake Zurich, Ill.) ended the Navy drought with a three-point field goal, but the Retrievers soon increased their lead to 16-9 with nine minutes left to play in the half. From there, the Mids closed the half on an 18-5 run to head into the locker room holding a 27-21 lead. The Mids sank eight of their last 18 shots from the field while the Retrievers misfired on nine of their last 11 field goal attempts.
Bauer was the offensive spark for the Mids during the first half. She connected on a trio of three-point field goals in just 10 minutes of playing time. Her effort allowed the Navy reserve players to outscore the UMBC bench players by a 17-2 count over the first 20 minutes of play.
UMBC slowly chipped away at the margin early in the second half and used a 6-0 run to tie the game at 35-35 with 13:40 showing on the clock. Navy responded with a 8-0 run to jump out to a 43-35 lead with 11:06 left to play. Erin Edwards (Jr., Hockessin, Del.) drilled a three-point field goal, Angela Myers (Sr., San Antonio, Texas) made a shot from inside of the paint, Bauer made the front end of two free throw attempts and, after Jade Geif (Fr., Lakeview, Minn.) grabbed the rebound when Bauer missed her second attempt, Edwards hit a 17-foot jumper for the Mids.
The Retrievers again fought back and an 8-0 run gave them a 48-47 lead with 5:35 left to play. Myers promptly hit two free throws and Cassie Consedine (Sr., Bartlesville, Okla.) connected on a three-point field goal attempt to give the Mids a 52-48 lead, then Michelle Kurkowski made a jumper for the Retrievers to slice the margin in half. Myers would again be fouled on Navy's next possession and her two free throws with 4:24 left increased the Navy lead back to four points. Both teams turned the ball over on their next possessions, then Kristin Coles made a layup while being fouled for UMBC. Her old fashioned three-point play made the score 54-53 with 3:34 showing on the clock.
Myers was fouled for the third time in a span of four Navy possessions and her ensuing two free throws pushed the lead back to three points -- 56-53 -- with 3:25 left to play. Those would turn out to be the last points of the game for the Mids.
UMBC's Tope Obajolu made a jumper from the paint to make it a one-point game, then the Retrievers regained possession of the ball when Consedine missed a three-point shot. Coles was fouled and missed both of her ensuing free throw attempts, but she was able to pick up the loose ball after her second miss to allow the Retrievers to maintain possession with a full shot clock to work with. Soon Michele Brokans, who entered the game 1-of-9 from three-point range on the season, hit a three-point field goal to give UMBC a 58-56 lead with just under two minutes remaining in the game.
Myers missed a three-pointer for the Mids, then Kurkowski hit a trey for UMBC to make the score 61-56 with one minute left on the clock. Myers had the ball stolen from her by Obajolu on Navy's next trip down the floor and that led to the Mids having to foul Kurkowski with 39 seconds left. Her two free throws pushed the UMBC lead to seven points (63-56). After Consedine missed a three-pointer for Navy, UMBC put the ball into Kurkowski's hands again and she was quickly fouled with 28 seconds left. She made both free throw attempts to close out the scoring in the game.
The last three minutes of the game saw the Mids miss five shots from the field -- all of which were three-point attempts -- and turn the ball over once. Meanwhile, UMBC was 3-of-3 from the field -- two of which were three-pointers -- and 4-of-6 from the foul line.
"UMBC is a talented team that can really shoot the ball," said Pemper. "I think we did a good job for the most part on Kurkowski. The three-pointer by Brokans really hurt."
After the Navy bench outscored its counterparts from UMBC 17-2 in the first half, the reserves for the Retrievers held a 17-4 edge over the Mids in the second half. UMBC also held a 28-14 advantage over Navy in points scored in the paint over the course of the game.
UMBC shot 60.7 percent from the floor in the second half, while Navy shot 34.6 percent from the field during the final 20 minutes of play. The three-point fortunes for both teams also took a dramatic turn at halftime. Navy was 5-of-10 from outside of the arc in the first half, but made just 4-of-14 three-point attempts in the second half. Conversely, UMBC started the game 2-of-12 from three-point range before sinking 4-of-6 three-point shots in the second half.
Additionally, the Retrievers won the rebounding battle from the Mids in the second half by the count of 18-13.
"I don't know if it is because teams are closer to the start of conference play, but the intensity really turned up a notch in the second half," said Pemper. "When teams do that we can't become frustrated and make mistakes. We need to be better than that; we are better than that. We need to do a better job when teams find that other notch in their game."
Myers ended the game with 19 points, six assists and five rebounds, while Bauer tied her career high with a 13-point effort.
"I thought Audrey played well," said Pemper. "She was aggressive on offensive. UMBC did a nice job of limiting Cassie's three-point shot, and we can't have Jade go 1-of-8 from the field and beat a good team. You have to give credit to UMBC for what they did."
Kurkowski tallied 15 of her game-high 22 points in the second half.
Navy will now take to the road for its next two games that will be played Dec. 30 at Air Force and Jan. 1 at Seattle.
