March 8, 2011
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy women's basketball team will play host to Bucknell Wednesday night in a semifinal round game of the Patriot League Tournament. The tilt between the No. 1-seeded Midshipmen and the No. 4-seeded Bison will tip at 7 p.m. in Alumni Hall.
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.
Navy advanced into the semifinal round with a 55-36 victory over the No. 8 Colgate this past Saturday night. The 36 points the Mids allowed the Raiders to tally was the fewest surrendered by a team in Patriot League Tournament history. Aiding the Navy effort was a 49-37 advantage on the glass and the Mids being able to sink eight three-point field goals to just two for the Raiders. The Mids made only six field goals in the second half of the game (five of which were triples), but were 9 of 15 from the foul line over the final 20 minutes to secure the win.
Four Mids scored at least nine points in the game, with Cassie Consedine (Sr., Bartlesville, Okla.) and Angela Myers (Sr., San Antonio, Texas) both scoring 13 points. The duo attained the bulk of their respective points in different ways; Consedine sank a trio of three-point field goals while Myers made eight free throws. Myers added five assists to move to within three helpers of establishing a new Navy career assist record (currently at 498), while Consedine hauled in 10 caroms to record her second double-double of the season. Additionally for the Mids, Alix Membreno (Fr., Loxahatchee, Fla.) tallied 11 points, six rebounds and four assists, while Jade Geif (Fr., Lakeview, Minn.) contributed 13 rebounds, five points and three steals.
This is the third consecutive season that the Mids have advanced into the semifinal round of the league tournament. Navy has posted an all-time record of 2-7 in the semifinal round and has dropped each of its last three contests in the round. The Mids are 1-1 in semifinal round games played on The Yard.
Bucknell ended the regular season tied with Army for fourth place in the league standings with a 7-7 record. Tiebreakers gave the Bison the No. 4 seed in the championship and that allowed Bucknell to play host to the fifth-seeded Black Knights in a quarterfinal round game this past Saturday. The Bison would post a 54-40 victory over Army to move into Wednesday's semifinal round game.
Navy defeated Bucknell in both regular season meetings this season to run its winning streak in the series to five in a row. Navy first utilized a late rally to post a 62-56 victory over Bucknell in Lewisburg in the first league game of the year before using a 27-0 run in the first half of the game played between the teams in Annapolis to spark the Mids to a 66-45 win.
The Bison left Annapolis that February night with a 3-5 record in league play. Bucknell would drop a decision to American in its very next game, but since the loss to the Eagles the Bison have won five of the six games they have played.
A total of six players from the two teams garnered individual accolades from the Patriot League this season. For Navy, Myers earned first-team all-league honors, Consedine was placed on the league's second team and Geif was selected as the league's rookie of the year. Those laurels were in addition to Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper being selected as the league's coach of the year. Meanwhile, Bucknell's Cosima Higham joined Consedine on the league's second team, Shelby Romine was named to the all-rookie team and Joyce Novacek earned a spot on the inaugural academic all-league team.
Wednesday's game will be the fifth time that the Mids and the Bison will square off in the league tournament, but it will be the first meeting to occur in the semifinal round of the championship. Bucknell holds a 3-1 edge over Navy in postseason games, with the Mids winning the most recent meeting in 2008 (53-51).
The winner of the Navy - Bucknell game will meet the winner of Wednesday's other semifinal between #2 Lehigh and #3 American in Saturday's championship game. Should the Mids top the Bison, the league final will be played at Alumni Hall.
