Dec. 8, 2010

Box Score | Photo Gallery

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy women's basketball team closed the first half of its game against Mount St. Mary's on a 21-3 run to build a double-digit lead it would not relinquish in an eventual 63-46 victory over the Mountaineers Wednesday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

"This was a nice game for us with next week being exams," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We got down early and had to get the lead back. We made some plays and did a nice job over the last 10 minutes of the first half."

Both offenses started the game slowly with the teams combining for eight turnovers and 1-of-5 shooting from the floor over the opening four minutes of play. Mount St. Mary's (1-6) held a trio of five-point leads before a pair of free throws by Selina Mann gave the Mountaineers a 16-14 advantage with just over eight minutes remaining in the half. Navy's (5-4) Audrey Bauer (Fr., Lake Zurich, Ill.) hit a jumper for the Mids on the team's next possession to tie the score at 16-16. Her bucket began a first-half closing stretch where Navy outscored Mount St. Mary's by the count of 21-3 to open up a 35-19 advantage at the break.

Neither team scored immediately after Bauer's basket until Jade Geif (Fr., Lakeview, Minn.) made a layup with 6:43 left in the half. Sandra Andresson answered with a three-point field goal to give The Mount a 19-18 lead, but from there Navy would score on each of its next four possessions on its way to tallying the final 17 points of the half.

Geif first made a pair of free throws to give the Mids a 20-19 lead. After a missed shot by The Mount, Kara Pollinger (Fr., Fort Gay, W.Va.) made a short jumper for the Mids. The Mountaineers missed another shot and that led to Angela Myers (Sr., San Antonio, Texas) being fouled while in the act of shooting. Her two free throws gave the Mids a five-point lead. The ensuing possession for Mount St. Mary's was a short lived one as Alix Membreno (Loxahatchee, Fla.) stole the ball and went the remainder of the court herself for a layup that boosted the Navy advantage to 26-19 with 3:52 remaining in the half.

In all, the Mids closed the half by connecting on 6-of-7 shots from the floor and committing only three turnovers during the last eight minutes of play. Conversely, Mount St. Mary's missed 9-of-10 field goal attempts and turned the ball over seven times during this same span.

Keying the run for the Mids were the members of the Navy bench. Navy's reserve players outscored the Mount St. Mary's bench 13-0 in the first half, with nine of those points coming over the last eight minutes of the half. Additionally, the Navy freshman foursome of Bauer, Geif, Pollinger and Membreno accounted for 15 of Navy's 35 first-half points.

Navy would jump in front by 20 points -- 43-23 -- early in the second half and led by as many as 24 points at 49-25 with 12:32 left to play. The Mount would slowly chip away at the margin and closed to as few as 12 points at 51-39 with just under nine minutes remaining in the game. Navy answered with a quick 7-0 run by the to make the score 58-39 with a little more than four minutes left to play.

"Mount St. Mary's seemed to run our plays better than we did at times," said Pemper. "They really respected us and came in with a nice plan."

Navy shot a season-high 43.4 percent from the field on the night, which included a 9-of-25 (36.0%) effort from outside of the three-point line. Mount St. Mary's would shoot 30 percent from the floor and connect on just 7-of-22 (31.8%) three-point attempts. The Mids also held a 40-29 advantage on the glass. Both teams were a little sloppy on offense as each turned the ball over 23 times in the game.

Three Mids scored in double figures in the game. Leading all players on the night was Cassie Consedine (Sr., Bartlesville, Okla.) with 14 points. Right behind her was Chey Arvin (So., Noblesville, Ind.), who connected on 4-of-5 field goal attempts to finish with 12 points.

"Chey can really shoot the ball," said Pemper. "We are trying to get her to be more of a catch-and-shoot shooter as she was tonight."

All but one of the 11 Navy players who entered the game scored on the night, with nine different players also accruing at least 10 minutes of playing time. Navy's bench finished the game with a season-high 20 points, while the five freshmen (including M.L. Morrison [Southlake, Texas]) who took to the court for the Mids also combined to score 20 points on the night.

"Angela didn't carry us tonight," said Pemper. "It was great to see some of the other players step up. Kara (five points and three assists in 11 minutes) did a good job, as did Alix (seven points and six rebounds in 25 minutes)."

Mann tallied 11 points, seven rebounds and seven assists to lead Mount St. Mary's.

Navy will close out its pre-exam schedule Friday night when the Mids play at Princeton.