March 19, 2011

AP Photo Gallery

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) - Lacking in height and athleticism to national power DePaul, Navy never backed down.

It wasn't until the game's closing minutes that the third-seeded Blue Demons could finally breathe easy in a 56-43 win over 14th-seeded Navy in the NCAA tournament.

Felicia Chester had 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Katherine Harry added 10 points and a couple big second-half buckets to help DePaul (28-6) advance to the tourney's second round for the first time in five years - though the victory didn't come easy.

DePaul will play No. 6 seed Penn State on Monday night, after the Lady Lions defeated 11th-seeded Dayton 75-66 earlier Saturday.

Jade Geif gets a hug from head coach Stefanie Pemper as time runs down. Geif scored 14 points and had 12 rebounds.

The 14th-seeded Midshipmen (20-12) didn't look like a team making its first appearance in the tourney. DePaul held advantages in size and athleticism, but hustling Navy matched them step-for-step anyway until the latter part of the second half.

Patriot League freshman of the year Jade Geif led Navy with 14 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out, while Angela Myers added 13 points.

Navy trailed by just three at halftime and led briefly, 30-29, early in the second half before DePaul slowly pulled away down the stretch - the same DePaul team that beat nationally ranked Stanford at home by 20 in December.

The Midshipmen played with poise for much of the game, not panicking on the floor in spite of 23 turnovers.

The 6-foot-3 Harry, the third member of DePaul's formidable frontcourt along with the 6-foot-3 Chester and 6-foot-2 Keisha Hampton, converted an offensive rebound, then hit from 15 feet to make it 54-43 with 3:36 left.

Hampton, an All-Big East selection, finished with nine points and five boards, while Anna Martin scored 10.

Navy came tantalizingly close for a while from upsetting a high seed. The Midshipmen got inspiration from coach Stefanie Pemper and her experience as an assistant at Harvard, when the Crimson became the first and only 16 seed in the men's or women's tournament to win a first-round game with a victory over Stanford in 1998.