March 5, 2011
Box Score | Photo Gallery 
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - A balanced offense consisting of four Mids scoring at least nine points and a stingy defense combined to lead the Navy women's basketball team to a 55-36 victory over Colgate Saturday night in a Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal round game played at Alumni Hall in Annapolis. The win advances the top-seeded Midshipmen into a Wednesday night semifinal game against the tournament's No. 4 seed Bucknell. That game will also be played on The Yard.
Navy (18-11) couldn't have asked for a better start to the game as the Mids scored on each of their first six possessions of the contest in jumping out to a 13-4 advantage. The Navy lead would soon be 17-7 before the Raiders (7-22) scored the next eight points to climb back into the game at 17-15. Navy would close the half on a 12-4 run -- with its final points tallied on a three-point field goal from Alix Membreno (Fr., Loxahatchee, Fla.) just before the end of the half -- to take a 29-19 lead at intermission.
"I liked the way we started the game," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We came out very focused and I think we showed some decent maturity out there. We struggled in the first half with Colgate's transition. That's a credit to them for pushing it on us. But then we hit some timely shots. I thought the three-pointer by Alix that put us up 10 at the break was a big momentum basket for us."
"We wanted to get a good start tonight," said Cassie Consedine (Sr., Bartlesville, Okla.), who scored Navy's opening five points of the game. "This was a game where we knew Colgate had nothing to lose and we had two tough games against them."
Membreno's three-pointer just before the half gave her 11 first-half points to go along with three assists. The Mids as a team shot 40 percent from the field while holding the Raiders to 28.6-percent shooting over the opening 20 minutes of play."
After Colgate opened the scoring in the second half with a three-pointer from Sami Kozlowski (29-22), the Mids scored 11 of the next 15 points to open up a 40-26 cushion with 12 minutes left to play in the game.
Erin Edwards (Jr., Hockessin, Del.) started the Navy run with a three-point field goal. Angela Myers (Sr., San Antonio, Texas) hit a free throw to make the score 33-22, then a short while later Edwards hit another three-pointer that pushed the Navy advantage to 36-24. Colgate's Jhazmine Lynch scored on a jumper (36-26), then another Myers free throw was followed by a three-pointer from Consedine that made the score 40-26.
Navy would lead by double figures -- with its largest advantage being 23 points (53-30) -- over the remainder of the night.
Navy made only six second-half field goals -- five of which were three-pointers -- and shot 26 percent from the field in the second half. But the Navy defense allowed Colgate to sink just seven second-half field goals and shoot only 22 percent from the floor.
The 36 points tallied by Colgate was the fewest scored by a team in a Patriot League Tournament game. The previous low was the 40 points scored by American against Navy in a 2005 game (Bucknell also held Army to 40 points in another quarterfinal round game played this evening).
"Colgate runs a lot of ball screens and does a good job at getting to the free throw line," said Pemper. "They are a hard team to defend. I thought our defense was good tonight, but I think Colgate just missed some shots too."
Consedine missed posting a double-double by just one rebound in each of Navy's final two games of the season. She would tally a double-double tonight with her 13-point, 10-rebound performance to share the Navy scoring honors in the game with Myers.
"Cassie and Angela stepped up for us," said Pemper. "Cassie hit some big shots in the second half and Angela made it to the foul line a lot.
"Colgate does a good job of being physical on Cassie. It is nice when a couple of shots fall as she had tonight. It makes the hard work a little easier. I thought when Alix found Cassie in the corner for a three-pointer was big. I can't say enough about how Alix played tonight."
Additionally for Navy, Jade Geif (Fr., Lakeview, Minn.) finished the game with 13 rebounds and five points, Membreno did not add to her point total in the second half, and Edwards knocked down a trio of three-pointers to end the game with nine points.
"This was a total team effort for us," said Consedine. "We have a number of players who are capable of scoring for us."
Lynch led Colgate with 12 points.
Wednesday's Bucknell at Navy game will start at 7 p.m. The other semifinal slated to take place that same night is No. 2 Lehigh playing host to No. 3 American.
Patriot League Tournament Quarterfinal Results
#1 Navy def. #8 Colgate, 55-36
#4 Bucknell def. #5 Army, 54-40
#2 Lehigh def. #7 Lafayette, 82-58
#3 American def. #6 Holy Cross, 72-44
Semifinal Schedule
Wednesday, March 9
#4 Bucknell at #1 Navy (7 p.m.)
#3 American at #2 Lehigh (7 p.m.)
