Final Stats

WASHINGTON, D.C. - American shot 57 percent from the field in the first half to open a double-digit lead on the Navy women's basketball team, but couldn't completely separate itself from the Mids until the very end of a 59-49 victory by the Eagles Wednesday night at Bender Arena in Washington, D.C.

The game concluded the first half of the Patriot League season for both teams. American remains alone in first place with an 8-1 record after the win while Navy, which entered the game in a four-way tie for second place, fell to 5-4 with the loss.

The Eagles quickly jumped out to a 16-7 lead early in the game, but the Mids just as quickly responded and closed to with 18-17 with 7:31 left in the half. American would score 10 of the next 12 points on its way to closing the half on a 14-5 run that gave it a 32-22 cushion at the break.

American connected on 51.5 percent of its first-half field goal attempts while limiting Navy to 33.3 percent shooting.

The teams pretty much traded hoops during the majority of the second half as the American lead hovered between seven and 12 points until five-straight points by the Mids allowed them to close to within 53-47 with 5:28 left in the game. Navy had a shot on its next possession that would have made it a three-point game, but missed, then turned the ball over on its ensuing three trips down the court.

American ended a scoring drought of over six minutes on a jumper with 2:19 left to take an eight-point cushion. Another Navy turnover was followed by the Mids blocking an American shot that led to a fastbreak bucket for Chloe Stapleton (Jr., Cary, N.C.) that winnowed the margin back down to six points at 55-49 with 1:26 remaining.

The Eagles scored on their next two possessions, with a miss by the Mids on their offensive opportunity between the American baskets, to close out the scoring.

"I thought we did a lot of promising things," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "I loved the second half. We played them even (27 points for both teams) and I thought we could have gotten them by a couple of points. We're down only six with two-and-a-half minutes left and we turn the ball over three times."

Navy made 40.7 percent of its field goal attempts after halftime, while American converted 46.2 percent of its shots in the second stanza. Those numbers gave the Eagles a 51.1%-37.3% advantage for the game.

American entered the game averaging a league-best 66.9 points per game during the league season and had scored at least 60 points in 11-straight games prior to tonight.

The Mids won the rebounding battle in the game, snaring 33 boards to 24 for the Eagles, which included a 12-4 edge on the offensive glass for Navy. American did force Navy into more turnovers, 14-10, and took good care of the basketball so that the Mids, who entered the game leading the league with an average of 10 steals a game, were credited with just two thefts on the night.

"We wanted to win the rebounding battle, and we did," said Pemper. "We wanted to force more turnovers than we did. We weren't able to be as effective defensively, but we did hold them to 59 points. Doing that on the road against the first-place team is a real positive.

"We did some different things with the lineup and I thought it was effective. Ashanti Kennedy (So., Virginia Beach, Va.) did some good things (eight points), Marina Muenster (Fr., Coppell, Texas) had a couple of nice low post plays we hadn't necessarily been getting out of the post. And Hannah Fenske (Fr., Albuquerque, N.M.) did a pretty good job of running the offense (six points, four assists).

Stapleton had her second-straight strong shooting game for the Mids. After sinking a trio of three-point field goals and tallying 15 points Saturday against Holy Cross, she was 3 of 4 from three-point range and 5 of 6 from the field in all in scoring 13 points against the Eagles. That tally matched the scoring production for Muenster, who was 6 of 8 from the floor. Stapleton and Muenster were two of the five Mids to snare at least four caroms in the game, with Justice Swett (So., Nashville, Tenn.) leading Navy with eight boards.

Jen Dumiak made 7 of 11 shots from the field on her way to tallying a game-high 17 points.

"Just a few more things here or there and certainly we could have been up in the second half," said Pemper. "We definitely were in a position to really compete to win. But a lot of credit to American; I thought they were really confident. Dumiak is a really good player who shot the ball well. Obviously we were trying to limit her and weren't able to do that."

Navy will open the second half of the Patriot League season Saturday at Lafayette.