Jan. 18, 2012
Final Stats
Washington, D.C. - American held the Navy women's basketball team scoreless over the final 2:29 of the game as a 6-0 game-closing run gave the Eagles a 49-44 victory over the Midshipmen Wednesday night at Bender Arena in Washington, D.C.
"Our players were really frustrated in the locker room at our being unable to finish the game," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "This was a great, grueling game by both teams. I love some of the things we did. We had some untimely turnovers, and they were able to limit the touches Jade Geif had." American (12-6, 4-0 Patriot League) held a 25-18 lead over Navy (9-9, 2-2) late in the first half before Jade Geif (So., Lakeville, Minn.) scored a late bucket for the Mids to narrow the margin down to 25-20 at the break. Geif would promptly score the opening six points of the second half to give the Mids a 26-25 lead. The Eagles responded with an 13-2 run that gave them a 36-28 lead with 11:31 left to play. Navy chipped away at the deficit and took a shortlived 39-38 advantage with 6:39 remaining. The Eagles regained the lead at 43-39 when Audrey Bauer (So., Lake Zurich, Ill.) drilled a three-point field goal to narrow the margin down to 43-42 with 3:45 left to play. American missed a pair of shots on its next possession, with Geif grabbing the loose carom after the latter attempt to give the ball to the Mids. Alix Membreno (So., Loxahatchee, Fla.) was then fouled on Navy's ensuing trip down the court. She hit both foul shots to give Navy a 44-43 advantage with 2:29 left on the clock. American's Alexi Dobbs missed a three-point attempt for the Eagles, with American knocking the loose ball out of bounds. The Mids inbounded the ball into the corner, where Lisa Strack picked the pocket of Erin Edwards and drove directly to the basket for a layup that gave American a one-point lead with just under two minutes left to play. Navy brought the ball over halfcourt on its next possession, and that led to Bauer missing a three-point attempt that was gathered in by Strack. American took its time on its next trip down the court, with Jen Dumiak starting to drive to the basket with the shot clock ticking down. Membreno would foul her during the drive with two seconds on the shot clock and 51 seconds left on the game clock. The new shot clock would lead to Stephanie Anya hitting a short jumper with 29.7 seconds left to play.
After a Navy timeout, the Mids gave the ball to Bauer who missed a three-point shot that would have tied the game. The ball went out of bounds with 21 seconds remaining and possession going to American. The Eagles inbounded the ball, but Edwards stole it with 17 seconds left to play. The ball eventually wound up in the hands of Bauer again, who tried a three-point shot that also missed the mark and went out of bounds off of the Mids with 3.l seconds left. American inbounded the ball to Dobbs who was fouled with 1.5 seconds remaining. She hit both foul shots to close out the scoring.
"Credit American," said Pemper. "There were stretches where we struggled on defense. We were play man-to-man but switched to a zone. The zone led to their being able to penetrate and grab offensive rebounds to keep possessions alive for them. Our being able to hold them to just 24 points in the second half is a little misleading as to how we played on defense due to the number of shots we gave up.
"You also have to complement their defense. They worked hard and followed a good game plan."
American snared 15 offensive boards to Navy's six, and forced the Mids into 15 turnovers while turning the ball over just seven times itself. That led to the Eagles attempting 63 shots and limiting the Mids to just 44 field goal attempts on the night. The Mids did shoot the ball better than the Eagles did -- 38.6% to 33.3% for the game, 50.0% to 34.5% in the second half - but the disparity in attempts allowed American to sink 21 field goals while holding Navy to 17 field goals.
Membreno notched a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards, Geif just missed one with 10 points and eight boards, while Bauer scored nine points.
Strack paced all players in the game with 20 points while adding five steals.
Navy will return to Alumni Hall Saturday night to play host to Colgate at 7 p.m.
