Jan. 18, 2011
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A stretch of three consecutive road games for the Navy women's basketball team will begin Wednesday night when the Midshipmen face Holy Cross in a 7 p.m. game slated to be played at the Hart Center in Worcester, Mass. The span of away games continues Saturday when the Mids play at Army and ends Jan. 26 when Navy plays at American.
An audio and video stream of Wednesday's game at Holy Cross will be available for Navy All-Access subscribers. Additionally, a link to live statistics from the game can be found at www.NavySports.com(.)
This will be the fifth consecutive year in which the Mids play back-to-back-to-back games at Holy Cross, at Army and at American. Navy posted a combined record of 1-5 the first two years of this challenging stretch of road games, but has compiled a 5-1 record in those games over the last two seasons.
Navy improved its Patriot League record to 3-0 with a 61-52 victory over Lafayette this past Saturday night in Alumni Hall. The win, Navy's fifth in a span of six games, gave the Mids a 3-0 record in league play for the first time in 12 years. The Mids scored just 17 first half points and totaled 32 points over the first 30 minutes of the game against the Leopards. However, Navy outscored Lafayette 29-17 over the final 10 minutes of play to come away with the victory. The Mids converted 8-of-11 shots from the field, including a 5-of-6 effort from outside of the three-point line, over the last 10 minutes of the game.
Jade Geif (Fr., Lakeview, Minn.) continued her strong play this season with a 14-point, 13-rebound effort against Lafayette. Geif's play was integral in keeping the Mids in the game. She was 4-of-5 from the field in the first half while the remainder of the Navy team was a combined 3-of-22 from the floor. One of those Mids struggling on the offensive end in the first half was Cassie Consedine (Sr., Bartlesville, Okla.), who tallied just three points in the first half. However, she found a rhythm in the second half and sank five three-point field goals over the last 20 minutes to end the game with 18 points.
Geif is averaging a team-high 15.0 points per game since the start of league play, with Consedine's average of 10.0 points a game ranking third on the squad. Angela Myers (Sr., San Antonio, Texas) ranks second among the Mids with an 11.7 points-per-game scoring average.
Holy Cross is only one game in back of Navy, American and Army in the Patriot League standings with a 2-1 record. The Crusaders have defeated Lafayette (72-67), lost to Army (50-47) and beaten Bucknell (57-47) through the first 10 days of the league campaign.
The Crusaders have been led by the scoring of Whitney Fremeau and Alex Smith since the start of the Patriot League season. Fremeau is averaging 15.3 points a game to lead all players, while Smith has knocked down a team-high nine three-point field goals on her way to averaging 11.0 points a game.
Navy has won three of the last four games in the series with Holy Cross, which has included back-to-back wins for the Mids over the Crusaders at the Hart Center. Navy posted a 77-69 victory over Holy Cross last year as the Mids completed the program's first regular season sweep of the Crusaders.
