Dec. 20, 2011

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- UMBC held the Navy women's basketball team without a field goal and to just two points over the last nine minutes of a 54-46 victory by the Retrievers Tuesday night at Alumni Hall. Both teams are now 6-5 on the season.

"We had so many open shots," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "UMBC doubled Jade Geif (So., Lakeville, Minn.) inside, but it felt like a shooting practice out there. We always found the open shooter. We just didn't hit the open shots."

Navy opened the second half by connecting on eight of its first nine shots from the field. That hot shooting allowed the Mids to overcome an early second-half six-point deficit to the Retrievers and take a 44-42 lead with 9:39 left to play in the game. The lead changed hands seven times in the first part of the second half, including on five consecutive possessions that culminated in Kara Pollinger (So., Fort Gay, W.Va.) hitting her second three-point field goal in as many trips down the court to give Navy its 44-42 advantage.

The very next UMBC possession saw Brittany Crowell hit a three-point field goal of her own to give the Retrievers a 45-44 lead with 9:23 showing on the clock. After a missed three-point field goal attempt by Chey Arvin (Jr., Noblesville, Fla.) on the Navy end of the floor, Crowell immediately hit another three-pointer to extend the UMBC advantage to 48-44. The Mids cut the deficit in half on their next possession when Alix Membreno (So., Loxahatchee, Fla.) made a pair of free throw attempts. Neither team would score again until Lauren Chase made a layup for UMBC with 6:11 left on the clock.

Though the Mids held UMBC to just 2-of-8 shooting from the field over the remainder of the game, Navy missed each of its seven field goal attempts that were taken after Pollinger tallied the latter of her two three-point field goals with 9:39 remaining in the game.

On the whole, Navy shot 50 percent from the field in the second half and 45.9 percent for the game. UMBC, which hoisted 21 more shots than the Mids did in the game, connected on 40 percent of its second-half field goal attempts and shot 37.9 percent from the floor over the entire 40 minutes.

Both teams were effective with the three-point shot on the night. Navy was 8-of-21 from three-point range (9-of-16 in two-point attempts) while UMBC was 9-of-22 from outside of the arc (13-of-36 inside of it).

UMBC held a 31-28 advantage over Navy on the glass including a 13-5 edge in offensive caroms. Additionally, the Retrievers forced the Mids into 19 turnovers while committing just 10 of heir own.

"Fatigue (after having limited practices and no games for nine days due to exams), you could maybe see it in our not crashing the offensive boards," said Pemper. "Five offensive rebounds is way below our season average (12.9). It is hard to win a game when you allow your opponent to take 21 more shots than you do.

"As for the turnovers, I think it may be a byproduct of having a very unselfish team. If our problem is people are trying to get the ball to an open shooter by making an extra pass, then that is a good problem to have."

Audrey Bauer (So., Lake Zurich, Ill.) made three of her six three-point field goal attempts and was 5-of-11 from the field overall in tallying a Navy-best 13 points in the game. She was joined in double figures by teammate Erin Edwards (Sr., Hockessin, Del.) with 10 points.

UMBC's Erin Brown scored 17 first half points -- on 5-of-7 shooting from outside of the three-point line -- and 20 points in all to pace all offensive players on the night.

"We are a lot younger team than UMBC is," said Pemper. "We've been young all year, but this UMBC team is one of the most experienced teams we are going to play, so there was a little contrast between the teams.

"I really like our team, a lot. There are a lot of good things we can take from this game. I'm just disappointed for our players. They certainly were good enough to win this game."

Navy will return to action on Dec. 29 when the Mids open play in the Fordham Holiday Classic by facing the tournament-host Rams at 12 Noon.