Jan. 29, 2011

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Colgate followed a 19-point first half with a 40-point second half to upend the Navy women's basketball team, 59-55, Saturday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis, Md. The loss was the first of the Patriot League season for the Mids (6-1) and ends their seven-game overall winning streak. Meanwhile, the Raiders picked up their second victory of the league campaign (2-5), as well as their second victory of the year away from Hamilton (2-10 in road and neutral games).

Despite the loss, Navy concludes the first-half of the Patriot League season in first place in the league standings. The Mids are one game in front of second-place American, a team Navy defeated Wednesday night.

"I thought coming into tonight, the only difference between us and Colgate was our record," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We could easily be 4-3 or 3-4 this season, and so could Colgate. We just have been able to pull out some games and they haven't."

It was a close first half until a 13-3 run gave Navy a 27-16 lead with a little more than three minutes left before halftime. Colgate connected on a trio of free throws over the remainder of the half (27-19), then opened the second half on a 14-2 run to take a 33-29 lead less than five minutes into the half.

The Mids made just one field goal over the last three minutes of the first half and the first eight minutes of the second half, but a jumper from Angela Myers (Sr., San Antonio, Texas) ended the drought and pulled Navy to within one point of Colgate at 35-34 with 11:18 remaining in the game. The teams proceeded to trade baskets over the next several minutes until back-to-back field goals allowed Colgate to take a 44-38 lead with seven minutes left to play.

The Colgate advantage would soon grow to eight points at 55-49 with two minutes left. Megan Matheny (So., Lexington Park, Md.) recorded field goals on consecutive possessions for the Mids to slice the margin in half with 2:34 left to play. After Kelly Korkwowski hit a jumper for Colgate to make it a six-point game, neither team scored on either of their next two respective trips down the court. Finally, Cassie Consedine (Sr., Bartlesville, Okla.) drilled with a turnaround three-point field goal to again cut the margin in half at 55-52 with 24.9 seconds showing on the clock.

Now forced to foul, the Mids sent Jhazmine Lynch to the line three seconds later and she converted both attempts from the charity stripe. Consedine missed a three-point attempt and that led to the Mids fouling Sami Kozlowski with 11 seconds remaining. Her two free throws closed out the game for the Raiders.

"Credit Colgate," said Pemper. "Their shooters had a different mentality in the second half. They were just going to let it fly and it worked for them. On the other end, I liked the shots that we took; we just needed to be better. But it wasn't just our shots that didn't fall tonight."

Colgate shot 25 percent (6-24) from the field in the first half, but connected on 62.5 percent (15-24) from the floor in the second half. This latter mark included a 5-of-7 effort (71.4%) from outside of the three-point arc. Conversely, Navy was fairly consistent with its shooting in the two frames. The Mids connected on 30.3 percent (10-33) of their field goal attempts in the first half and 37.5 percent (12-32) in the second half. Navy did sink nine three-point field goals in the game, but needed 32 attempts (28.1%) to do so.

Additionally, Navy held a 24-21 advantage on the glass on the first half, but Colgate grabbed 19 second-half caroms and limited the Mids to 12 rebounds after halftime.

Four Mids scored in double figures on the night, with Consedine's 14 points leading Navy. Myers and Jade Geif (Fr., Lakeview, Minn.) both scored 11 points in the game while Audrey Bauer (Fr., Lake Zurich, Ill.) added 10 points.

Colgate's Tayler Wejnert led all players in the game with 19 points.

Navy will open the second half of the Patriot League season Feb. 5 when the Mids play host to Bucknell.

Patriot League Standings
1. 6-1 Navy
2. 5-2 American
3. 4-3 Army
T4. 3-4 Bucknell
T4. 3-4 Holy Cross
T4. 3-4 Lehigh
T7. 2-5 Lafayette
T7. 2-5 Colgate