Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. â€"â€" Ashanti Kennedy (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) scored six of her career-high 16 points in the fourth quarter to help the Navy women's basketball team to a 52-48 victory over North Carolina A&T Sunday afternoon at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

"Good win," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "Happy to get this one, for sure. They (North Carolina A&T) really challenged our point guard play. That's a lot of turnovers for us (25). We're working with a new point guard this year, and their pressure and athleticism, along with being well coached â€"â€" they didn't handcheck a lot â€"â€" they played really well. Getting this win was key specifically with what they were bringing against us."

The Aggies (0-3), who were tabbed to win the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference this year and had defeated the Mids (2-1) last season in Greensboro, N.C., built an 18-12 lead midway through the opening quarter of play. Navy, playing its first home game of the season, went on a 10-2 run â€"â€" with Kennedy accounting for four of those points â€"â€" to take a 22-20 lead before going into halftime with a 23-22 advantage.

Navy's lead would be 31-29 at the five-minute mark of the third period when Bianca Roach (Fr., Virginia Beach, Va.) hit a three-point field goal to start a 7-0 spurt that made the score 38-29 in favor of the Mids. Navy would take a 40-34 lead into the start of the fourth quarter and opened up its largest lead of the game at 46-37 with just under six minutes left on the clock. The teams traded the next four field goals, which kept Navy's lead at nine points at 50-41 with just 43 seconds remaining in the game.

The margin was quickly sliced down to four points with 25 seconds left, then an offensive foul on the Mids gave the Aggies the ball back with 19 seconds still to play. A missed three-point field goal by the visitors with 10 seconds left effectively ended the game.

After shooting 28 percent from the field in the first half, Navy sank 41.4 percent of its shots in the second half. The Mids allowed the Aggies to convert on 32 percent of their shots in the first half and on 29.4 percent of their attempts after halftime. Both teams struggled from outside the three-point line as Navy was 4-17 (23.5%) and North Carolina A&T was 4-13 (30.8%).

Navy forced North Carolina A&T into 26 turnovers on the afternoon, with 16 of Navy's 25 coming in the second half.

"The fact that we shot better in the second half than we did in the first is something to be happy with," said Pemper. "It is kind of strange to have 16 turnovers in the second half, yet we shot better."

Kennedy's 16 points bettered the 15 points she scored in Navy's Patriot League Tournament semifinal round loss at American at the end of the 2014-15 season, and improved upon her season-high of 14 points she had scored one week ago today at Saint Peter's.

"She (Ashanti) had a really good game," said Pemper. "She had a double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds) to start the year at Hofstra. It's great to see her playing in rhythm with a lot of confidence. She is going off the dribble, hitting some three-point shots, is good from the line, is getting a lot of rebounds; I'm thrilled for her."

Taylor Dunham (So., Fort Belvoir, Va.) accounted for nine points and three assists, Sarita Condie (Jr., Lovelock, Nev.) had eight points, and Marina Muenster (So., Coppell, Texas) added six points, five rebounds and three blocks.

Aprill McRae led North Carolina A&T with 12 points and an equal number of rebounds.

Navy's five-game homestand continues Tuesday night when the Mids play host to Elon at 7 p.m.