Final Stats

BALTIMORE, Md. - An afternoon of struggles on the offense end that included a season low for points scored in a half and a near season low for points scored in a game led to the Navy women's basketball team losing a 55-49 decision to Loyola Wednesday afternoon at Reitz Arena in Baltimore.

Navy (6-6, 0-1 Patriot League) struggled offensively from the early part of the game, scoring only seven points in the game's opening nine minutes and just 15 for the half as Loyola (3-9, 1-0) took a 21-15 lead at the break.

Turnovers limited Navy's effectiveness in the first half as the Mids committed 16 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes of play, which led to 17 points for the Greyhounds. The Mids did force Loyola into 11 turnovers, but Navy scored just four points after them.

"I give Loyola credit for how they defended us in the first half," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "They did a good job of forcing us into so many turnovers. We clearly didn't handle their pressure very well."

Loyola quickly jumped on Navy at the start of the second half by scoring the opening five points of the frame to take a 26-15 lead less than four minutes into the half.

The Mids turned their fortunes around quickly and sliced the margin down to one point at 28-27 with 12:30 left to play. Loyola scored on a basket and foul shot on its next possession, then it again was a one-point game at 32-31, with the Greyhounds connecting on a layup and missing a free throw on their next time down the floor. The Mids were again within one point at 34-33 and had two possessions to take the lead, but a missed shot ended the former possession and an offensive foul ended the latter.

Navy cut the margin down to one point for a fourth time at 48-47 with 1:47 left to play, but two free throws on the other end, a Navy missed shot and two more foul shots by the Greyhounds gave Loyola some separation over the Mids.

Navy sank a season-low 16 field goals in the game while shooting 32 percent from the floor. That mark included a 6-21 (35.7%) effort from three-point range. Also hurting the Mids was their shooting just 11-18 (61.1%) from the foul line.

Loyola made just 15 field goals and shot 34.9 percent from the field an made the same number of triples as Navy did, but the Greyhounds were 16-23 (69.6%) from the free throw line in the second half and were 19-29 (65.5%) from the charity stripe for the game.

"I'm happy with our defensive effort," said Pemper. "It came down to scoring and making plays versus not making plays. Loyola also made it to the free throw line more than we did, especially late in the game, and they were better than we were from it."

Navy did a better job of taking care of the basketball in the second half as it turned the ball over just five times while forcing eight Loyola turnovers, but still tallied 21 turnovers on the day.

Taylor Dunham (Fr., Fort Belvoir, Va.) led Navy in scoring with 15 points, while Sarita Condie (So., Lovelock, Nev.) added 10.

"We need to find a way to score," said Pemper. "Our starters need to score. We also beat ourselves a little bit with plays late in the game."

Colleen Marshall led Loyola with 13 points.

Navy will be home Saturday to play host to Lafayette at 7 p.m. in Alumni Hall.