Final Stats

WEST POINT, N.Y. - After staving off runs at them throughout the game, the Navy women's basketball team still needed to survive a narrowly wayward three-point field goal attempt at the final buzzer before the Mids could close out a 53-50 victory over Army Saturday afternoon at Christl Arena in West Point.

Navy, which had eight of its 10 players who took to the court today play in their first Army-Navy game, improved to 9-6 on the season and 3-1 in the Patriot League, while the Black Knights saw their records on the year fall to 9-5 and 1-3, respectively.

"Chloe Stapleton (Sr., Cary, N.C.) was really good before the game, talking about getting people in the right mindset," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper of her youthful squad. "We talked about keeping your head and keeping your poise. This game can be so dramatic with people beating themselves about this game mentally."

"We got the see a little of the men's game before ours started," said team captain Stapleton, "so it was nice for our payers to see the crowd. We wanted to go into it mentally like just another Patriot League game so they weren't shell-shocked. I just told them to keep their head straight, there are going to be a lot of people heckling us, but just listen to our 15 players and coaches."

Navy couldn't have asked for a better start to the game as a three-point field goal by Taylor Dunham (Fr., Fort Belvoir, Va.) started a game-opening 7-1 run for the Mids. Navy's defense held the Black Knights without a made field goal until the game was six minutes old. The Mids were able to gradually increase their cushion out to as many as 13 points at 22-9 with just under seven minutes remaining in the half.

"I think our coaches gave us a really good game plan," said Dunham of the good start. "Every game we believe we are going to make shots at the start of the game, whether their shots are going in or not. We had good morale. It was really great to get that lead, especially on the road. The energy was even higher."

Navy's lead was still double figures at 24-17 after a layup by Peri Curtis (Jr., Coronado, Calif.) with 4:43 left on the clock. The Mids missed their next three shots and turned the ball over twice to allow Army to make it a four-point game, but a long jumper by Dunham as the first-half buzzer sounded gave the Mids a spark and 26-20 lead at halftime.

Army made the first of multiple runs at Navy in the opening minutes of the second half. The Mids held a 28-26 lead less than three minutes into the stanza and Army had a possession to either tie or take the lead, but the Mids responded with a quick 5-0 run to build a 33-26 lead.

That sequence of Army winnowing the margin down so it was a one-possession game and Navy answering with a small spurt repeated itself throughout the half:

* Navy's lead was down to 33-30 when Stapleton drained a three-point shot for the Mids.

* It was 38-35 Navy when a Sarita Condie (So., Lovelock, Nev.) jumper started a 5-1 run by the Mids that gave them a 43-36 lead with 7:19 left to play.

* Army scored the next six points to close to within 45-44, but Marina Muenster (Fr., Coppell, Texas) scored on Navy's next possession with a twisting layup, grabbed a defensive rebound on the other end of the court while being fouled and proceeded to sink a pair of free throw attempts for a personal 4-0 run that gave Navy a 49-44 lead with 4:07 showing on the clock.

The Black Knights whittled the score down to 49-48 on a jumper by Aimee Oertner with 1:20 remaining, but a jumper by Ashanti Kennedy (So., Virginia Beach, Va.) gave the Mids a 51-48 lead with 54.1 seconds left.

"Ashanti's pull-up was huge," said Pemper. "Especially with her getting an offensive foul about a minute and a half before that. The resiliency she showed right there was great."

Army answered on its next trip down the court when Kelsey Mianto scored on a layup with 39 seconds still to go.

Navy spread the floor on its next possession, which allowed Dunham to drive the lane. However, like Kennedy a short while before, she was whistled for a charging foul with 24.1 seconds left that gave the ball back to the Black Knights. Army sent the ball inside to Jean Parker, whose shot missed and kicked high in the air. Dunham scooped up the loose ball and was fouled by Minato with 1.8 seconds to go. She would calmly sink both attempts from the charity stripe to boost the lead back to three points, but the game wasn't over just yet.

Army quickly advanced the ball down the court and got it to Parker on the left wing. She had a clean look at the basket, but her three-point shot just before the buzzer hit the rim and bounced wide.

"A little bit (of nerves when watching that last shot)," said Stapleton. "But I knew we were up by three so worst case was that it would go into overtime."

Both teams shot the ball very well, especially in the second half when the Mids made 47.6 percent of their field goal attempts and the Black Knights made 48 percent of their shots. But Navy made 41.7 percent of its first half shots while Army made just 25.9 percent of its shots in the first half.

"We had such a mish-mash lineup out there," said Pemper. "We were without our starting center (Haley Unger, who was sick) and Marina Muenster was in foul trouble, so we were so small out there. I'm a little surprised we shot the ball that well. I thought Army's defense was really good and really smart and whether it was our personnel or our defense, it seemed we really struggled in the second half. It obviously was one of those `just find a way wins.'"

Army held slight advantages over the Mids in rebounds (35-29) and turnovers forced (13-9), as well as in free throw attempts (16-8), but both teams made eight shots from the foul line.

Nine of the 10 Mids who played scored for Navy. Though Dunham was the lone Navy player to score in double figures with 12, three Mids scored seven points and three more tallied between four and six points. One of the Mids who fell into the latter category was Muenster with four points, but she snared 10 boards in her 15 minute of playing time.

"I think everyone contributed," said Dunham. "Before the game it was all about `together, together, together,' and I think we pulled it out together."

"We play well together," said Stapleton. "When everyone contributes, talks on defense ... and we also kept our composure and poise, which is important when you go into a hostile environment."

Whereas Navy was very balanced with its offense, the trio of Minato (15), Oertner (15) and Olivia Schretzman (14) combined for 44 of Army's 50 points on the day.

Navy will be home Wednesday night when the Mids play host to Bucknell.