Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- After totaling just 30 points through the first three-quarters of the game, the Navy women's basketball team found its shooting touch down the stretch as it outscored Towson 25-10 over the final nine minutes to come away with a 55-51 victory Tuesday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

Leading the rally was the play of the Navy bench, which outscored the starters 32-7 in the second half and 42-13 for the game.

The Mids (5-3) struggled through a pair of lengthy scoring droughts in the first half to enter intermission trailing the Tigers (2-5) 21-16. Navy went scoreless over stretches of 6:39 (18:20-11:41) and 8:44 (8:59-0:14) to allow Towson to go on 6-0 and 15-0 runs, respectively. The Tigers then outscored the Mids 8-0 over a span of 3:47 early in the second half to extend their advantage out to 29-18. The teams traded scores over the next eight minutes until Towson took a 41-30 lead with a little more than nine minutes left on the clock.

To that point, Navy was 12-41 (29.3%) from the field, including a 3-22 (13.6%) effort from three-point range, and was just 3-9 (33.3%) in its free throw attempts.

"During one of the timeouts," said Taylor Dunham (Fr., Fort Belvoir, Va.), "(head coach) Stefanie (Pemper) said, `Who thinks we are going to lose because our shots aren't falling and it seems we can't come back right now?,' and no one said anything. Just the confidence we had in each and belief we have in each other and we just never gave up."

The Mids needed all of 64 seconds to slice the deficit from 11 to five points. Ashanti Kennedy (So., Virginia Beach, Va.) started the spurt with a defensive carom on one end and a jumper on the other. The Tigers then took three shots on their offensive end before Justice Swett (So., Nashville, Tenn.) snared a rebound, which led to Dunham being fouled for the Mids. She would convert both foul shots. Kennedy ended the ensuing Towson possession with a steal, then she too was fouled. Her two free throws made the score 41-36 with 7:47 left on the clock.

Swett eventually cut the margin down to four points on an offensive carom followed by a putback while being fouled and a resulting tally from the charity stripe that closed the Mids to within 45-41 with 6:20 remaining. Towson's Dominique Johnson was fouled on the other end of the floor, and her two foul shots pushed the margin back to six with just under six minutes remaining.

Neither team scored on their next respective trip down the court, then Dunham was fouled after both Swett and Peri Curtis (Jr., San Diego, Calif.) kept Navy in possession of the ball with offensive boards. Dunham again made both foul shots to make the score 47-43 with 4:47 left to play. Towson, then Navy, then Towson again came away with empty possessions, then Dunham drilled a three-point shot to narrow the Mids to within 47-46 with 3:32 showing on the clock. A Swett steal led to a jumper by Curtis to give the Mids a 48-47 advantage with just under three minutes to go.

"I knew they were kind of cheating on the pick," said Dunham of her three-pointer, "so I just made a move to see if she (defender) was biting that way and she did."

Johnson was fouled on the next Towson possession and went to the line to shoot the bonus. Her first offering was off, but she grabbed her own miss and scored on a putback to place Towson back in the lead. Swett misfired on a three-point shot, but Johnson had an errant shot of her own the next time the Tigers had the ball. Dunham corralled the loose ball, pushed it down the court and found Curtis open behind the three-point line. Her attempt ricocheted off the backboard and through the rim to give Navy a 51-49 lead with 1:23 remaining on the clock.

Johnson kept the ball in her hands again, and her trey attempt was wide and soon gathered in again by Dunham. She would quickly fire the ball to a sprinting Kennedy who scored on a layup to extend Navy's lead to 53-49 with 44 seconds left to play. The Tigers would miss, in order, a three-point attempt, two foul shots and two layups on their next trip down the court before Markell Smith scored to cut the lead in half with 19.3 seconds left, after which they called timeout.

The Mids placed the ball into Dunham's hands on the inbounds and she was fouled with 12.5 seconds left to play. She would make the first and miss the second, which kept it a one possession game at 54-51. Ciara Webb missed a three-point shot for the Tigers, with Curtis grabbing the rebound and being fouled with 1.9 seconds left to play. Curtis missed her first attempt from the line, but made the second to account for the final points of the evening.

"Taylor was a great spark plug," said Pemper, of how Navy rallied for the win, "and Ashanti was a real spark too. We went back to zone (defense). It seemed to be good and (we) had active hands. And the momentum clearly swung our way."

Navy were 7-11 (63.6%) from the floor, including 2-4 (50%) from the three-point line and made 9-11 (81.8%) foul shots over the last nine minutes of the game.

Towson made 31.7 percent of its field goal attempts on the night, but were 0-14 from three-point range and, outside of LaTorri Hines-Allen who was 8-16 from the floor (and 5-5 from the foul line), was just 12-47 (25.5%) from the field.

The Tigers snared 23 offensive boards, but those caroms only led to their scoring 18 second chance points.

Curtis led the Mids with 12 points (eight in the second half), Dunham accounted for 11 points (all in the second half) and fellow reserve Kennedy posted nine points in 16 minutes (did not play in the first half).

"She (Kennedy) has been such a good vocal leader for us in the locker room, honestly, on nights when she doesn't play a minute," said Pemper. "Tonight you heard her before the game reminding people. She knows basketball and played against some of these gals, so I had total confidence in her as far as her effort. We said at one point that we weren't really competing, and Ashanti went in there and fired people up with how she competed."

"We're a deep team and feel anyone can come off the bench and contribute any night," said Dunham.

Hines-Allen paced the Tigers with 21 points.

Navy will now head to Oregon for a pair of games this weekend. The Mids will play Friday at Portland State before facing Oregon on Saturday.