March 4, 2011
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The regular season champion Navy women's basketball team will open play in the Patriot League Tournament Saturday when the Midshipmen play host to Colgate in a quarterfinal round game at Alumni Hall. The tip between Midshipmen and the Raiders is slated for 7 p.m.
Fans are reminded that only those vehicles with a Department of Defense sticker affixed to it will be allowed to drive onto the grounds of the USNA. Season ticket holders will have vehicle access to Navy on Saturday, just as they did during the regular season. All other visitors to The Yard have the option of either finding parking in downtown Annapolis and walking through the Academy's gates or riding the free shuttle bus from Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium ($5. per vehicle to park). For maps and directions to the shuttle bus pick-up point as well as additional fan information, please click HERE.
A live video stream of Wednesday's game will be available to Navy All-Access subscribers and live statistics from the game will be offered for free. Visit www.NavySports.com to access links to live statistics and to sign-in or subscribe to Navy All-Access. A one-month subscription costs $9.95, while the cost for a year-long subscription is $79.95. Locally, the game will be carried on WNAV-AM 1430 starting at 6:45 p.m.
The Mids enter the tournament as the No. 1 seed for the first time. Navy was one of three teams -- American and Lehigh -- to end the regular season with identical 10-4 records in league play, but the Mids posted a 3-1 record against the Eagles and Mountain Hawks to win the first tiebreaker between the tied programs. As such, the Mids will play at home in every game they will compete in during the tournament.
Navy tied the school record for the most league wins in a season with its 75-59 victory over Colgate this past Saturday in a game that was far closer than the final score indicates. Colgate erased a seven-point Navy first-half lead to take a 42-40 lead early in the second half. Navy had regained the lead at 45-44 when the Mids broke the game open with a 17-2 run that made the score 62-46 with a little more than six minutes left on the clock. The Mids then closed the game by sinking 8 of 11 free throw attempts.
Navy was helped in the game by sinking 11 three-point field goals (to three for Colgate) and holding a 42-34 advantage on the glass. Individually for Navy, second-team all-league performer Cassie Consedine (Sr., Bartlesville, Okla.) scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds, Erin Edwards (Jr., Hockessin, Del.) scored a career-high 15 points and 2011 Patriot League Rookie of the Year Jade Geif (Fr., Lakeview, Minn.) tallied 12 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Meanwhile, Colgate's Sami Kozlowski scored 14 points and Kelly Korkowski recorded 11 rebounds and 8 points.
Colgate makes the trip to Annapolis as the No. 8 seed in the tournament, but knowing it defeated Navy on the Alumni Hall court earlier this season. The Mids entered the Jan. 29 game with a 6-0 record in lead play and quickly jumped out to a 27-16 lead late in the first half over the (at the time) 1-5 Raiders. Colgate rallied and took a 33-29 lead early in the second half, which was quickly expanded to 44-38 with just seven minutes left on the clock. Navy could only close to within three points of the Raiders on a pair of occasions over the remainder of the game before Colgate emerged with a 59-55 victory.
The Raiders shot 62.5 percent from the field and made 5 of 7 three-point field goal attempts in the second half, while also holding a 19-12 rebounding advantage over the final 20 minutes of play, to spark their comeback.
Colgate's Tayler Wejnert, who garnered Second-Team All-Patriot League honors this season, scored 19 points and hauled in 11 boards for the Raiders in their win.
Saturday's game will be the sixth between the two teams over the last two seasons. The two teams split the regular season series last year before Navy posted a 69-50 victory in the quarterfinal round of the Patriot League Tournament. The victory gave Navy a 3-1 advantage over Colgate in league tournament games played between the teams.
Navy has posted quarterfinal round victories in each of the last two seasons, the first time it has won in the round in back-to-back years since the Mids won six straight quarterfinal round games from 1994-99.
Saturday's game will be the seventh league tournament game played by the Mids in Alumni Hall. The Mids are 3-3 in home league tournament games -- 2-2 in the quarterfinal round -- but have lost their two most recent home games in the postseason (2001, 2007).
The last two times that Colgate has played a Patriot League Tournament game in Annapolis, the Raiders won a 2001 game as the tournament's No. 7 seed before becoming the first and only No. 8 seed in league history to topple a No. 1 seed when they did so in 2007.
