Feb. 13, 2010

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Kristin Bowen (Sr., Monroeville, N.J.) drilled eight three-point field goals and Cassie Consedine (Jr., Bartlesville, Okla.) hauled in 15 rebounds to help the Navy women's basketball team tally a 62-42 victory over Lafayette Saturday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

"We had lots of reasons to come out and play with a great deal of intensity and focus, and we were able to do just that," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We have only one more home game after tonight, we had a tough loss Thursday to Lehigh (54-53) and we had lost to Lafayette the first time we played them (46-43)."

Despite being able to get a number of good shots, Navy (13-12, 5-5 Patriot League) struggled from the floor at the onset of the game. The Mids misfired on 11 of their first 13 shots from the field as Lafayette (4-20, 2-8) quickly built a 10-5 lead nine minutes into the game. Navy responded by going on a 12-0 run over the next 2:30 to take a 17-10 advantage.

Angela Myers (Jr., San Antonio, Texas) grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on the putback to start the Navy run. The Mids then tied the game at 10-10 when Jasmine Pitts (Fr., Long Beach, N.Y.) hit a three-point field goal attempt. Following a Lafayette turnover, Beth Reed (Sr., Indianapolis, Ind.) hauled in a Navy offensive carom and scored a bucket to give the Mids a lead it would not relinquish for the remainder of the game. Lafayette would miss a jumper on its next trip down the court, and that led to Bowen hitting her first three-point field goal of the game. After Pitts stole the ball away from LaKeisha Wright, she quickly fed Reed for a layup to cap the 12-0 run.

Neither team scored points over the next minute of play, but then Bowen drilled three-pointers on back-to-back Navy possessions to make the score 23-15. Her latter trey accounted for the final points of 16 straight that were scored by members of the Navy bench.

A short while later, Bowen's fourth triple (on five attempts) gave the Mids their largest lead of the first half at 32-19 with 60 seconds left on the clock. Navy would enter intermission holding a 32-21 advantage.

In addition to Bowen's shooting, Navy also enjoyed the lead thanks to hauling in 26 rebounds in the first half and limiting Lafayette to just 13 caroms.

Lafayette would score four of the first six points of the second half to narrow the margin down to nine points at 34-25. A Bowen three-pointer boosted the Navy lead back to 12 points, and the Mids would lead by double figures over the rest of the game.

Lafayette made a late run at the Mids, cutting a 17-point deficit with eight minutes left on the clock down to 13 points with 4:31 remaining in the game. Bowen would end any thought of a Lafayette rally as she connected on four straight field goals -- one two-point field goal followed by a trio of three-point field goals -- over a span of five Navy possessions to tally the next 11 points for the Mids and give Navy a 62-40 lead with one minute left in the contest.

Bowen would finish the game sinking eight three-point field goals on 11 attempts and tally 28 points in just 21 minutes of playing time. One of her three missed attempts came when she heaved a shot toward the rim after receiving the ball while being closely guarded with two seconds left on the shot clock.

The eight three-point field goals by Bowen tied Courtney Davidson (2004 vs. Lafayette) for the most three-pointers tallied by a Mid in a league game, and was one shy of tying both the Navy and Patriot League record for the most triples made in a game of any kind. Among the three league players who have made nine three-pointers in a single game was Angela Dobbs, who holds the Navy record with her output against Yale 18 years ago.

Bowen's eight treys contributed mightily to Navy's tally of 12 triples as a team on the night. It was the fifth time this season -- and the third time during the Patriot League campaign -- that the Mids have sunk at least 10 three-point field goals in a game. Additionally, Navy has now totaled 194 three-point field goals this season, which not only breaks the school record of 191 (set last year in 31 games), it also leaves the Mids two away from tying and three away from breaking the Patriot League record for the most triples in one season. American's 2006-07 squad holds the league mark with 196 three-pointers made in 32 games that year.

Just as it did in the first half, Navy doubled up the number of rebounds grabbed by Lafayette in the second half. The Mids finished the game with 48 rebounds in all, while limiting the Leopards to just 24 caroms. The rebounding edge helped Navy record an 11-2 advantage over Lafayette in second-chance points.

Navy shot 43.4 percent from the field in the game and held Lafayette to a mark of 31.6 percent. While the Navy offense drilled one dozen three-pointers in the game, its defense was holding the Leopards to 1-of-6 shooting from outside of the arc.

In addition to Bowen's efforts, the rest of the Navy reserve players also played well in the game. Reed was 2-of-3 from the field, Pitts made 1-of-3 shots from the floor and Erin Edwards (So., Hockessin, Del.) made 1-of-2 attempts. Those four players all logged at least 14 minutes of playing time in the game.

"I felt this was a game where we were going to have to rely on our bench," said Pemper. "It didn't seem as if we had great legs to start the game.

"To shoot the ball as well as we did while still coming away with as many offensive rebounds as we did (15, while Lafayette totaled 17 rebounds on Navy's offensive end of the court) was really great. I think it showed a lot of fight in us."

Not to be lost in the performance of Bowen was the play of Consedine. The junior center notched her fourth double-double of the season and the 24th of her career with 12 points and the aforementioned career-high 15 rebounds. She also added three blocked shots and two steals in the game. Her 12 points leaves her just seven points away from becoming the 14th player in Navy history to record 1,000 career points.

"I was really pleased with Cassie's play," said Pemper. "She helped set a great tone for us."

Wright led Lafayette in points (13), rebounds (6) and assists (4) in the game.

With just four games remaining in the Patriot League regular season, Navy will enter the penultimate week of the campaign in no worse than in a tie with Army for third place in the league standings. The Black Knights, who currently sit one-half game in back of the Mids, will play host to Lehigh Sunday afternoon.

Next week's schedule has Navy playing Wednesday at Holy Cross and Saturday at Army in the annual Star Game between the service academies. The Mids will then close the regular season with games Feb. 24 at American and Feb. 27 at home against Colgate.

Patriot League Standings
1. 9-1 American
2. 8-1 Lehigh (Sunday at Army)
3. 5-5 Navy
4. 4-5 Army (Sunday vs. Lehigh)
5. 4-6 Holy Cross
T5. 4-6 Colgate
7. 3-7 Bucknell
8. 2-8 Lafayette