Jan. 15, 2011

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy women's basketball team connected on 8-of-11 shots from the field, including a 5-of-6 effort from the three-point line, over the last 10 minutes of play to rally for a 61-52 victory over Lafayette Saturday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis. Navy's win, its fifth in the last six games, improves its record to 3-0 in the Patriot League for the first time in 12 years. Meanwhile, Lafayette fell to 0-3 in league play with the loss.

Though both offenses struggled in the first half, Lafayette was the first team to make any kind of significant run. The Leopards jumped out to a 19-9 lead before the Mids closed to within two points at 19-17. Lafayette responded by scoring the final seven points of the half to go into the locker room at intermission holding a 24-17 lead.

Navy was 7-of-27 (25.9%) from the floor and 2-of-14 (14.3%) from three-point range over the first 20 minutes of play. The Mids remained in the game thanks in large part to the play of Jade Geif (Fr., Lakeview, Minn.). The freshman post player was 4-of-5 from the field (while the remainder of the Navy team was 3-of-22) in scoring eight points and grabbing seven boards in the first half. Lafayette as a team was 8-of-30 (26.7%) from the field and 4-of-12 (33.3%) in its three-point attempts in the first half.

"We were not as prepared for Lafayette's defense in the first half as we could have been," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "You have to give the credit for that to Lafayette. They did a nice job of confusing us in their half-court defense. I think we had some really good shots in the first half, though. I told the team at halftime, `Don't let the scoreboard make you think you are not playing well.'"

The Mids chipped away at the deficit in the early part of the second half and took their first lead of the game when a Geif layup made the score 30-29 with 14:08 left in the game. The lead quickly changed hands three times until Lafayette took a 35-32 lead with 10:22 remaining on the clock.

An Angela Myers (Sr., San Antonio, Texas) layup off of a pass from Geif sliced the deficit to one point before Sara McGorry sank a free throw to give the Leopards a 36-34 lead. At that point, Navy's Cassie Consedine (Sr., Bartlesville, Okla.) went on a scoring spree for the Mids. She sank three-point field goals on each of the next three Navy possessions to give the Mids a 43-36 lead with 6:45 left to play. The teams traded field goals and Lafayette made a free throw to make the score 45-39, then Erin Edwards (Jr., Hockessin, Del.) drilled a three-point field goal of her own to give Navy a 48-39 lead with 4:56 showing on the clock. Once again the two teams traded field goals, then Edwards sank another trey to boost the Navy margin to double figures at 53-41 with three minutes left in the game.

"We needed a catalyst to get going in the second half," said Pemper. "Angela found Cassie for a couple of three-pointers and played very good defense, and then Erin's pair of three-point field goals were really big."

Lafayette soon started to foul to send the Mids to the line and the strategy worked, somewhat, as Navy made just four of its next eight attempts from the charity stripe. However, Navy would grab the errant carom following three consecutive missed free throw attempts to extend the possessions for the Mids.

The Mids scored just 32 points in the first 30 minutes of play before tallying 29 points over the last 10 minutes. While Navy shot 83.3 percent from outside of the three-point line and 72.7 percent from the field over the last 10 minutes of play, the Mids held Lafayette to 5-of-16 (31.3%) shooting during the same time span. In all, Navy would shoot 56.0 percent from the floor and 53.8 percent from three-point land in the second half.

Additionally, Navy held a 21-14 edge on the glass during the final 20 minutes of play and a 48-32 advantage for the full game.

"I think we can take away from the second half the ability to have confidence as shooters tonight," said Pemper. "We were not that confident in the first half."

After scoring just three points in the first half, Consedine erupted for 15 points in the second half. Her total of 18 points paced all players in the game. Meanwhile, Geif ended the game with 14 points, a career-high 13 rebounds and a career-high four blocked shots. Also for the Mids, Edwards would record a season-high 11 points and Myers added nine assists, eight points and five rebounds.

"Jade deserves a lot of credit," said Pemper. "We really didn't go to her all that much with the offense. A lot of her baskets were the result of hard work by her, especially on the offensive boards."

LaKeisha Wright's 16 points led all Lafayette players in the game.

Navy will now take to the road for each of its next three games. The stretch of away games begins Wednesday night when the Mids play at Holy Cross.