Dec. 3, 2010

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Loyola held the Navy women's basketball team scoreless over the last four minutes of the game as the Greyhounds rallied to post a 57-54 victory over the Midshipmen Friday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

Navy (4-3) scored nine of the opening 11 points of the game, but its offense slowed as Angela Myers (Sr., San Antonio, Texas) picked up her second foul of the half with just under 12 minutes left to play and the Mids leading by the score of 9-5. With Myers -- who had been on the floor for nearly 93 percent of Navy's points this season -- on the bench, Loyola (2-5) scored 16 of the next 20 points to build a 21-14 advantage. The Mids were able to close to within two points at 21-19 before Myers re-entered the game with 2:40 left. Less than 30 second later, she picked up her third foul when she attempted to block a shot from Alyssa Sutherland. Not only would it be Myers' third foul, but Sutherland made the field goal attempt and ensuing free throw. Loyola's Meredith Tolley would knock down a three-point field goal attempt a short while later, and that let the Greyhounds enter halftime holding a 27-19 lead.

"We don't want to relay on Angela as much as we have," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We need other people to pick it up, outside of Cassie. We need better guard play.

The margin between the teams hovered between three and seven points over the opening nine minutes of the second half. Navy then went on a 9-2 run to take a 45-44 advantage. The Navy run started with Myers sinking one of two free throw attempts. After a Loyola turnover, Cassie Consedine (Sr., Bartlesville, Okla.) drilled her fourth three-point field goal of the game to pull Navy to within two points of the Greyhounds. Loyola would miss a pair of shots on its next possession, then Myers hit a jumper to knot the score at 42-42. Both teams came away without points on their respective next possessions, then Miriam McKenzie made a field goal to give Loyola a two point lead. That was answered by an Erin Edwards (Jr., Hockessin, Del.) three-point field goal to give the Mids their first lead of the half with 8:38 left in the game.

The lead would change hands five times over the remainder of the contest, including on each of the next two possessions of the game. Loyola soon took a 51-49 lead on a free throw by Erica DiClemente with 5:18 left on the clock, but a jumper by Myers and a fifth three-pointer from Consedine allowed the Mids to take a 54-51 lead with four minutes remaining.

The two teams combined for a missed field goal attempt, a missed free throw attempt and three turnovers during the next 90 seconds. A jumper by McKenzie then pulled Loyola to within one point of the Mids before both teams again came away empty on each of their next two possessions. Eventually McKenzie would hit another jumper to give Loyola a 55-54 lead with 1:25 left to play. The Mids committed a shot clock violation on their next trip down the floor, but a turnover by McKenzie gave the ball back to Navy with 30 seconds left to play.

Myers, who played the entire second half without committing her fourth foul, drove the lane but misfired on her twisting layup attempt with 18 seconds left to play. McKenzie grabbed the errant carom for Loyola and the Greyhounds immediately called timeout. Navy fouled Tolley with 14 seconds left to play, and she sank both free throws to boost the margin to three points. After a Navy timeout, the Mids were unable to get a three-point attempt off before the final horn sounded.

"It's a cliche to say we have a lot to learn from tonight," said Pemper. "We didn't play a 40-minute game. I don't think either team executed great down the stretch; they just made one more basket. I would have liked us to have shot the ball better, and shoot better from the foul line; we didn't execute well on the last play and we had a late out of bounds play that we didn't execute on. We didn't have the depth we normally have, and we could have brought more energy. We had a strong second half, and Angela and Cassie played great overall.

"We can take away from tonight that we didn't let it slip away from us in the first half, and we stayed tough in the second half and took the lead. We have good things to take away from tonight if our players learn from it. This is a game that should hurt and motivate our players. We have a lot of talented pieces, but we need people to show up."

After shooting just 26.9 percent from the field in the first half, Navy connected on 48.1 percent of its field goal attempts in the second half. However, Loyola also improved its first goal percent from 36.7 percent in the first half to 47.8 percent after halftime.

The Mids connected on eight three-point field goals (on 16 attempts) in the game, but struggled to a 6-of-15 (40%) effort from the foul line. Conversely, Loyola made six three pointers (on 15 attempts) and made 7-of-10 attempts from the charity stripe.

Consedine tallied a game-high 19 points for the Mids and added seven boards to the Navy effort. Myers scored all 12 of her points and dished out half of her six assists in the second half. Pacing the Mids on the glass was Jade Geif (Fr., Lakeview, Minn.), who hauled in 12 boards to go along with seven points.

McKenzie recorded 16 points to lead Loyola's offense.

Navy will return to Alumni Hall Sunday at 2 p.m. to play host to Delaware.