March 6, 2010

Final Stats

WORCESTER, Mass. -- A record-breaking 15 three-point field goals made helped propel the Navy women's basketball team to a 69-57 victory over Colgate Saturday night in a Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal round game at the Hart Center in Worcester, Mass.

The victory advances the third-seeded Mids (17-13) into a semifinal game Sunday against second-seeded American. The 3:30 p.m. game between the Mids and the Eagles will be preceded by a 1 p.m. game between top-seeded Lehigh and fourth-seeded Holy Cross.

Navy's game can be heard live on WNAV-AM 1430 starting at 3:15 p.m. An audio and video stream also will be available to Navy All-Access subscribers via www.NavySports.com(.)

The 15 treys broke the Navy and Patriot League record of 14, set by the Mids in 1992, and broke the league tournament record of 13, which was set by Navy's 2003 squad.

Seven different Mids connected on at least one trey in the game, with Kristin Bowen (Sr., Monroeville, N.J.) and Angela Myers (Jr., San Antonio, Texas) both drilling four triples.

"We moved the ball very well and set some really strong screens," said Bowen of the long-range production by the Mids.

"We really played well off of each other," said Myers. "We knew that if we passed up one shot we could find someone else who would be able to hit another one."

Navy tallied nine three-point field goals (and four two-point field goals) in the first half, but the Mids held just a 36-34 lead over Colgate at intermission. The Raiders stayed in the game by shooting 52.2 percent from the floor and by sinking 8-of-10 free throw attempts over the first 20 minutes of play.

Navy would open the second half by scoring 20 of the first 30 points of the frame to take a 60-44 advantage with 10 minutes left to play in the game. The Mids were able to increase their margin to as many as 22 points at 68-46 with five minutes left before the Raiders whittled the difference down to 12 points at the final buzzer.

"I think we were able to get some really good looks," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper, whose Mids were 15-of-33 from three-point land and 9-of-24 in their two-point attempts in the game. "We like to shoot the ball when we are open and we were able to knock them down."

Navy shot 42.1 percent from the field for the game, which included a 45.5 percent effort from outside of the three-point line. While percentage wise the Mids were more effective on offense in the second half, their defense also did a better job after halftime. The Raiders shot just 32.1 percent from the floor in the second half and were just 2-of-5 from the free throw line after intermission.

Turnovers also titled in favor of the Mids in the game. Navy scored 17 points off of the 15 Colgate turnovers it forced, while the Raiders scored just seven points following the 11 turnovers committed by the Mids.

Myers led Navy with 16 points and five assists, Bowen contributed 15 points and K.C. Gordon (Sr., Vienna, Va.) added 13 points and Navy-high six boards.

Krista Moser recorded a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds to lead Colgate in both categories.