Feb. 23, 2011

Box Score | Photo Gallery

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Navy scored on six of its last seven possessions of the game to close its contest against American with an 11-4 run that gave the Midshipmen a 63-56 victory over the Eagles Wednesday night at Alumni Hall. The game served as the regular season home finale for the Navy women's basketball team.

The victory by the Mids creates a three-way tie atop the Patriot League standings with just one game remaining in the league season. Navy, American and Lehigh all have posted 9-4 records this year. However, the Mids hold any tiebreaker with both the Eagles and the Mountain Hawks (by virtue of sweeping American this season), so if Navy is tied with either team or with both teams after play ends Saturday, Navy will be ranked as the higher seeded team. This means Navy is the only team of the three to hold their playoff fate in their own hands. A victory by the Mids Saturday at Colgate -- a team Navy lost to earlier this season in Annapolis -- assures the Mids of earning the No. 1 seed in the Patriot League Tournament.

"I think it was kind of poetic that we had Senior Night for Cassie (Consedine) and Angela (Myers) before the game and then they came out they and played as they did," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "There was so much riding on this game for us with playing the one team ahead of us in the standings. This now gives us a chance to play for the regular season title on Saturday. We really had to have this game. With all of the background and meaning behind the game and with how they played, I hope Cassie and Angela will always remember tonight."

After taking a five-point lead at the break, Navy held the lead for all but a short span of the second half. But the largest cushion Navy could build until the very end of the game was five points and that was at 31-26 with just under 19 minutes left to play in the game. The Mids soon held a 40-37 lead when the Eagles went on a 6-0 run to take a 43-40 lead with 10:45 showing on the clock. A layup from Alix Membreno (Fr., Loxahatchee, Fla.) and a pair of free throws from Angela Myers (Sr., San Antonio, Texas) gave Navy a 44-43 advantage, but the lead would change hands several more times over the ensuing few minutes of play.

The score was knotted for the 12th time in the game at 52-52 when Myers was fouled with 4:04 left to play. She made both free throws to give the Mids the two-point lead. After a missed three-point attempt by American's Nicole Ryan, Audrey Bauer (Fr., Lake Zurich, Ill.) found Membreno open underneath the hoop for a layup that gave Navy a four-point lead with 3:19 showing on the clock. American would miss a pair of jumpers on its next time down the court, but Stephanie Anya gathered in the third errant carom for the Eagles and tallied a putback to slice the margin in half with 2:20 remaining in the game.

Membreno would miss a trey for the Mids, but Geif battled for the loose ball, grabbed it and scored on a putback of her own to return the Navy lead to four points with 1:46 left on the clock. Both teams would miss shots on their next respective trips down the floor, then Geif blocked Liz Leer's short field goal attempt with 39 seconds left. Cassie Consedine (Sr., Bartlesville, Okla.) grabbed the rebound for the Mids and quickly flipped it to teammate Erin Edwards (Jr., Hockessin, Del.), who was immediately fouled with 38.0 seconds left. She sank both free throws to give Navy a 60-54 lead.

After a Navy timeout, the Eagles inbounded the ball to Lisa Strack who weaved her way through 94 feet of Navy's defense and scored on a layup while being fouled with 33.2 seconds remaining. Though Strack pulled the Eagles to within four points of the Mids with her bucket, she missed the ensuing free throw attempt that would have made it a one-possession game. Myers grabbed the bouncing ball and was fouled with 31.9 seconds showing on the clock. She calmly walked from one free throw line to the other and made both attempts to boost the margin to 62-56. The Eagles would miss a jumper and a pair of three-point attempts before Edwards grabbed the defensive rebound for Navy. She was fouled with 11.0 seconds left to play and made the first of her two free throw attempts to close out the scoring for the game.

"This was a really good team win," said Pemper. "I give American credit, because they are a hard team to defend. Our guards played well on defense with having to fight through all of the screens that they did.

"You could look at everyone who took to the floor for us tonight and say they made an important play. Cassie and Angela played really well; Jade and Megan Matheny (So., Lexington Park, Md.) both had huge blocks; Chey Arvin (So., Noblesville, Ind.) made two big three-pointers; Audrey had three assists; Alix played strong defense; Erin scored a career high; Kara Pollinger (Fr., Fort Gay, W.Va.) hit a really tough jumper. Everyone had a hand in this win."

American made two more field goals on the night than Navy did (23-21). But the Mids made seven three-point field goals to four for the Eagles and Navy was 14 of 19 from the foul line while American was 6 of 12. Navy's free throw total included a 10 of 10 effort from the charity stripe for Myers.

Both teams took very good care of the basketball in the game. American turned the ball over six times on the night while the Mids committed just five turnovers. There was only one turnover between the teams in the entire second half of play.

Navy had three players just miss recording a double-double. Myers totaled 15 points and nine assists, Consedine posted 10 points and nine boards and Geif finished the game with 11 rebounds and nine points. Additionally for the Mids, Edwards tallied a career-high 13 points.

Leer recorded 16 points and seven rebounds for American, with Strack adding 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Navy's game Saturday at Colgate will start at 2 p.m. at the school's Cotterell Court in Hamilton, N.Y. A video stream of the game will be available to Navy All-Access subscribers, while live statistics from the game will be provided free of charge. Fans can access either multimedia offering by logging on to www.NavySports.com(.)

Regardless of the outcome of the game, Navy has assured itself of playing host to at least the quarterfinal round of the Patriot League Tournament. That game will be played at 7 p.m. on March 5 against an opponent to be determined. Tickets ($8 for adults, $4 for youth) for the game can be purchased by through the Navy Ticket Office by either phone (1-800-US4-NAVY) or by visiting www.NavySports.com and clicking on "TICKETS."

Patriot League Standings (Saturday Opponent)
T1. 9-4 Navy (Sat. at Colgate)
T1. 9-4 American (Lafayette)
T1. 9-4 Lehigh (Holy Cross)
4. 7-6 Army (Bucknell)
T5. 6-7 Bucknell (at Army)
T5. 6-7 Holy Cross (at Lehigh)
7. 4-9 Lafayette (at American)
8. 2-11 Colgate (Navy)