Feb. 22, 2012

Final Stats

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - A 7-0 run early in the second half provided just enough of a cushion for Lehigh to post a 57-48 victory over the Navy women's basketball team Wednesday night at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa.

"Tough loss," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "Coming off of back-to-back one-possession losses to American and Colgate, I liked the mentality we brought to tonight's game. I was happy with our physical effort tonight. We really wanted this game, we just didn't make enough plays."

Lehigh (15-12, 8-5 Patriot League) went into halftime holding a 26-24 lead over Navy (14-13, 7-6 Patriot League). After the teams traded field goals over the first 70 seconds of the second half, the Mountain Hawks tallied seven points over their next three possessions to build a 35-26 lead. The margin between the teams would grow to as many as 12 points at 48-36 with 7:31 showing on the clock.

The gap was still nine points at 53-44 with 3:33 remaining when the Mids made their run at the Mountain Hawks. First, M.L. Morrison scored on a layup off of a nice pass from Alix Membreno with just over two minutes remaining. Membreno then tallied a steal and scored on a layup of her own to make the score 53-48 with 1:40 left to play. Membreno recorded yet another steal on Lehigh's next possession to give the ball back to the Mids with one minute remaining. However, Navy's time with the ball came to an end when Morrison was whistled for an off-the-ball offensive foul while Membreno was dribbling the ball outside of the three-point line.

Lehigh would connect on each of its four free throw attempts down the stretch to close out the contest.

"I think we showed growth from an offensive execution standpoint tonight," said Pemper. "We prepared well for this game and got lots of great shots but the ball didn't go in enough. Defensively, we had too many errors but we corrected them better then we did at Colgate. I thought Kara Pollinger had really nice energy again showing positive leadership."

Navy's offense manufactured good shots throughout the game, but just couldn't get many to fall. The Mids shot roughly 35 percent from the field in both the first and second half. Conversely, Lehigh connected on 46 percent of its shots in the first half and 41 percent of its attempts after halftime.

While Navy turned the ball over just one more time in the game than Lehigh did, 15-14, the Mids tallied just four points off of those Mountain Hawks turnovers while Lehigh accrued 15 points following Navy's miscues with the ball.

Morrison, who played one of the more impactful games of her young career, scored a career-high 10 points in 20 minutes of playing time. Tonight's effort comes one game after she set her previous career high of seven points Saturday at Colgate.

"M.L. works hard and it's great to see her make a contribution in a big game," said Pemper. "She made a few smart defensive plays and offensively she found some openings, took what the defense gave, and got to the foul line. I hope she can build on this, she gave us valuable minutes tonight."

Erin Edwards connected on five of her nine field goal attempts to end the game with a Navy-best 11 points. Lehigh's defense limited Jade Geif to just thee field goal attempts in the game. She would score both of her points from the foul line while grabbing nine boards. Also taking care of the glass for the Mids was point guard Pollinger, who snared eight caroms on the night.

Lehigh was led in scoring by Kelly Peterson with 14 points and by Alexa Williams with 13. Williams also contributed 13 rebounds to the Lehigh effort.

Navy will now close out its regular season Saturday by playing host to Bucknell at 7 p.m. in Alumni Hall. Despite tonight's loss, the Mids will enter next week's Patriot League Tournament as either the No. 3 or No. 4 seed and are assured of playing host to a quarterfinal round game in the championship.

"We now set our sights on Saturday," said Pemper. "It's a big game especially with the opportunity to honor Erin Edwards who has been a wonderful part of our program for four years."

Patriot League Standings (1 game left)
13-0 American
8-5 Lehigh
8-5 Army
7-6 Navy
6-7 Holy Cross
5-8 Colgate
3-10 Bucknel
2-11 Lafayette