Final Stats

EASTON, Pa. -- The Navy women's basketball team answered several charges at them by Lafayette, including one in the closing minutes, to never trail in a 65-60 victory over the Leopards Saturday afternoon at the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.

"I'm really happy for our team after a couple of losses, to come on the road and get a big win against a good Lafayette team," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper.

Navy (12-9, 6-4 Patriot League) put together one of its best starts in recent games by scoring 12 of the first 13 points of the afternoon and holding Lafayette (11-10, 4-6) without a made field goal for the first seven minutes. The Mids then were able to extend their lead out to as many as 16 points at 29-13 before the Leopards sliced the margin down to 31-26 with just under two minutes left before halftime.

Navy halted what was a 10-0 Lafayette run on its next trip down the court when Haley Unger connected on a short jumper. The Mids closed out the scoring less than one minute later when Chloe Stapleton drained her third three-point field goal of the half and the 200th of her career to boost the margin back to double figures at 36-26.

That trey was one of six (on 15 attempts) the Mids drilled in the first half as part of their overall 41.7 percent shooting effort from the floor in the frame.

Navy held Lafayette to 9 of 26 shooting from the field (34.6%) in the first half, but the Leopards opened the second half by hitting their first six shots and pulling even with the Mids at 39-39 five minutes into the stanza.

Just as in the first half, Navy thwarted the Lafayette run with a small spurt of its own. The Mids gathered in a par of offensive boards on their next time down the court before Ashanti Kennedy, who made the first start of her career today, ending the possession by hitting a jumper. After a turnover by the Leopards, Kennedy assisted on a Sarita Condie three-point field goal, then blocked a Lafayette shot which led to a Hannah Fenske layup. Lafayette missed a shot on its ensuing trip down the court, then Condie hit another jumper to cap a 9-0 Navy run that gave the Mids a 48-39 advantage with 11:43 left in the game.

The Navy lead hovered between six and nine points until a long offensive board and jumper by Marina Muenster boosted the Mids out to a 59-48 lead with 5:11 remaining.

Lafayette slowly chipped the margin down to five points at 59-54 with 2:51 left. After two Navy missed shots on its next possession that ended scoreless, the Mids gained the ball back on a Fenske steal with 1:20 left to play. Condie proceeded to hit a long jumper with 56 seconds remaining to make the lead 61-54 in favor of the Mids.

The Leopards quickly scored on their next possession (61-56, 40 seconds) and fouled Condie in the Navy backcourt. She walked to the other end of the floor and sank both free throws with 37.1 seconds showing on the clock. Back came the Leopards with a jumper by Emily Homan with 24 seconds left, after which Lafayette called its final timeout. Kennedy threw the inbounds pass about 50 feet to find Condie sprinting toward the basket. As she pivoted away from the basket she was whistled for an offensive foul that gave the ball back to Lafayette with 22 seconds remaining. The Leopards quickly sent the ball back inside to Homan, who scored with 15 seconds left to make it a 63-60 contest.

The Leopards again fouled Condie on the inbounds pass with 14.1 seconds remaining. Condie missed the front end of the bonus, but snuck her way into the lane to snare the offensive rebound. The Mids were able to run six seconds off the clock before Kennedy was fouled. Kennedy also missed the front end of the bonus, but this time Justice Swett battled for and grabbed the loose ball for the Mids. With the Leopards having sent two players to their offensive baseline in hops of getting a quick shot off, Navy was able to the ball around until Fenske was fouled with 1.5 seconds left on the clock. She made both attempts from the charity stripe to secure the win for the Mids.

"We shot the ball well," said Pemper. "Lafayette had a lot of offensive rebounds in the last game, so we were trying to win the rebounding ball. It was great we got off to a big lead, they trimmed it and we were able to still have a nice 10-point lead at the half. They caught up in the second half and we extended it. So for us to not get down, not lose confidence in those situations ... we were very aware Lafayette had just come back from 25 down against Colgate in this gym, so no lead was very comfortable tonight. It was really nice to play under those conditions for a young team."

Seven of Navy's 10 Patriot League games have been decided by six or fewer points, with the Mids posting a 5-2 record in those close games.

Navy held a 16-8 advantage on the offensive glass in the game, which included a 10-4 edge in the second half. Those numbers held the Mids to a 38-33 advantage in total rebounding.

Navy ended the game with eight three-point field goals made and a 28.6-percent shooting night from outside of the arc, but was 18-36 (50%) from inside of the three-point line on the afternoon.

Lafayette shot 58.3 percent from the field in the second half for an overall shooting performance of 46.0 percent.

Condie scored a career-high 17 points in the game, Fenske tallied 14 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals, and Kennedy contributed 12 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals. Additionally, Haley Unger added eight boards and Swett snared six caroms.

"We felt Ashanti had to earn her keep tonight," said Pemper. "At her size, trying to guard Lafayette's frontline is a mismatch for us, so are trying to see if she could be a mismatch for other teams. We needed her to play as she did. Sarita just shot the ball great and that really big offensive board off her own missed free throw was a huge, huge play."

Jamie O'Hare made 8 of 9 field goal attempts, including 5 of 6 from three-point land, to lead all players with 23 points, while Homan finished the game with 19 points, nine rebound and three blocks.

"We had different people step up," said Pemper. "Sarita was great off the bench, Ashanti hit some big baskets; we feel that has to be our recipe for success. Obviously Homan and O'Hare had fantastic games and almost beat us, but we feel it has to be a team effort for us. Sarita's pull-up on the baseline was huge, Marina's rebound and outback, Hannah's little pull-up against their zone, Ashanti had a big shot and Justice found Ashanti for it."

Navy will return home for its next two games. The Mids will play host to Boston U. Wednesday night before playing host to Army in the Star Game Feb. 8.