Feb. 8, 2011
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy women's basketball team will make the first of two trips this week to Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley when the Midshipmen play at Lehigh in a 7 p.m. game in Bethlehem, Pa. Navy will then return to the region for a Saturday afternoon game at Lehigh.
Free live statistics will be available at www.NavySports.com, as will a link for a video stream accessible to Navy All-Access subscribers.
Navy enters the first full week of the second half of the Patriot League season with a two-game lead in the standings. The Mids have posted a 7-1 record in league play and currently stand ahead of second-place American and Army who have both compiled records of 5-3.
The Mids recorded their seventh win of the league campaign Saturday night when Navy tallied a 66-45 victory over Bucknell. The Bison quickly jumped out to a 9-0 lead over the Mids, but Navy proceeded to go on a 27-0 run over the next 12 minutes to take command of the game. The lead grew to as many as 22 points before a late Bucknell closed the margin down to 13 points. Navy responded with 9-1 run over the game's final few minutes of play.
Megan Matheny (So., Lexington Park, Md.) scored 11 first-half points to better her previous career high for a full game after just 20 minutes of play. She would end the game with 13 points. Angela Myers (Sr., San Antonio, Texas), who scored Navy's opening 10 points of the game, finished the night with 16 points and seven assists.
Navy stopped a six-game skid in the series with Lehigh with a 63-62 victory on January 12 in Alumni Hall. The lead changed hands six times in the last five minutes of play on that night. The Mountain Hawks took a late lead of 60-58 on a field goal from Courtney Dentler with one minute left to play in the game. Myers then tracked down an errant Navy three-point field goal attempt and fed Chey Arvin (So., Noblesville, Ind.) who drilled a three-pointer to give the Mids a 61-60 lead with 29 seconds left. Dentler was then called for an offensive foul on the ensuing Lehigh possession with 11.5 seconds left on the clock to return the ball to Navy.
One play after Myers found Arvin open for the three-pointer, Arvin found Myers sprinting away from the pack on the inbounds pass for an easy layup that boosted the Navy cushion to three points with just under nine seconds remaining. A stingy Navy defense forced Lehigh to settle for a two-point shot that dropped through the net with four-tenths of a second left to play. The Mids were then able to inbounds the ball to run out the scant time remaining on the clock.
Lehigh outshot Navy 45.6%-35.5% for the game, which included an advantage of 50.0%-31.4% in the second half. The Mids stayed in the game thanks to a 44-31 advantage on the glass, which resulted in Navy tallying 18 second-chance points to just three for Lehigh.
Myers posted 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists in the game, Jade Geif (Fr., Lakeview, Minn.) recorded 17 points and nine rebounds and though Cassie Consedine (Sr., Bartesville, Okla.) scored only two points on the night she did grab 11 boards and block three shots.
Dentler led Lehigh's efforts with 17 points and eight rebounds.
The early season loss for the Mountain Hawks to the Mids was the middle game of what would be a league-opening three-game losing streak for Lehigh. However, since the 0-3 start Lehigh has posted a 3-1 record to return to the .500 mark against league foes with a 4-4 record.
