Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - A fast start on offense and a stout defensive effort throughout the game gave the Navy women's basketball team a wire-to-wire 65-52 victory over Lafayette Saturday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

Navy (7-6, 1-1 Patriot League) quickly scored the first eight and 10 of the first 12 points of the game over the opening 3:30 of the contest. Lafayette (8-5, 1-1) soon closed to within 15-12, but Navy answered with a 5-0 run of its own to take a 20-12 lead midway through the frame.

That would be the first of several times in which the Leopards narrowed the margin down only to see the Mids respond with a small spurt to add to their separation. An example of this took place in the next few minutes as Lafayette winnowed the deficit down to 20-17 and 22-19, only to see the Mids tally the ensuing five points to take a 27-19 lead. Lafayette would pull to within two points at 30-28 with 2:46 left in the half, but a basket and foul shot by Peri Curtis (Jr., Coronado, Calif.) followed by a bucket from Justice Swett (So., Nashville, Tenn.) gave the Mids a 35-28 lead at the break.

Navy's lead hovered between five and nine points over the first few minutes of the second half before baskets by Sarita Condie (So., Lovelock, Nev.) and Taylor Dunham (Fr., Fort Belvoir, Va.) pushed the advantage out to double figures at 48-38 with 14:37 left on the clock.

Lafayette had another answer as it scored back-to-back field goals over the next 45 seconds to cut the margin back down to six points (48-42). The Mids promptly went on an 11-2 run over the next five minutes to expand their cushion out to 59-44 with 8:24 remaining. It would not be until there were just under five minutes left in the game when the Leopards would score another field goal as a three-point basket ended a scoring drought for them of 6:23.

That trey was followed by another field goal by the Leopards to make the score 59-49 with just over four minutes remaining. The Mids were in midst of a scoring slump of their own at the time, but a twisting layup by Condie ended a five-plus minute span without a point for Navy to give them a 61-49 lead with three minutes left to play. Condie would hit another shot 80 seconds later to boost the Mids out to a 63-49 advantage with 100 seconds remaining in the game. The Leopards wouldn't tally another point until there was 1:24 left in the game.

Navy held Lafayette to a second-low 28.4 percent shooting from the floor -- its previous low for a game was 31.7 percent and it was connecting on 40.1 percent of its shots for the season -- including just a 22.2 percent effort (8-36) in the second half. This latter percentage also included a 2-15 (13.3%) showing from three-point range over the final 20 minutes of play.

Navy converted on 36.9 percent of its field goal attempts for the game, including 37.9 percent (11-29) in the second half.

The Mids also took very good care of the basketball as they committed just three turnovers in the second half and eight turnovers for the game while forcing the Leopards into 13 turnovers. Nine of those 13 turnovers were the result of steals by the Mids.

"Lafayette defended is a little differently than Loyola did (16 first-half turnovers, 21 for the game)," said Pemper. "Hopefully when teams defend us similar to how Loyola did we will handle it better. Hopefully we learned from that. We were really disappointed we lost that game, even with how well Loyola played. This is a really great win for our team."

Both teams had great success on the offensive glass as Lafayette snared 24 offensive boards and Navy grabbed 22. However, the Mids held a 15-12 advantage in second-chance points.

"We have been focusing more on that a little more in practice," said Pemper, of getting more offensive boards. "Just feeling that if the first shot doesn't go in, let's try and get a second one."

All 11 Mids who took to the court scored at least two points on the night. Dunham tied a career-high for the second game in a row with 15 points while also contributing five rebounds, four assists and one steal. Also putting together an effective all-around game was Hannah Fenske (Fr., Albuquerque, N.M.), who totaled six points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Additionally for the Mids, Curtis tallied five of her seven points in the first half, Condie recorded six of her eight points in the second half, and Marina Muenster (Fr., Coppell, Texas) added eight rebounds and six points in the game.

Lafayette's Emily Homan led all players in the game with 17 points, while also contributing 10 boards and three blocks. Her teammate, Ashley Lutz, narrowly missed a double-double of her own with eight points and 15 rebounds.

"We were trying to do a good job on Homan," said Pemper, "because she is such a great player, and then we were really tying to do a good job on Linnel Macklin, their second-leading scorer (held to two points, both coming from the foul line) who has improved so much in her career and has become a potential all-league player. That was our focus. I felt Lafayette is a really good team and there is so much we had to defend.

Navy will take to the road for its next two games. The Mids will play Wednesday at Boston University before playing at Army one week from today.