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ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Chloe Stapleton (Sr., Cary, N.C.) and Sarita Condie (So., Lovelock, Nev.) staked the Navy women's basketball team to an early lead over Colgate, then Taylor Dunham (Fr, Fort Belvoir, Va.) helped the Mids salt away a 64-52 victory over the Raiders Saturday afternoon at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

Colgate (5-20, 4-10 Patriot League) quickly jumped out to a 6-0 lead on Navy (14-11, 8-6), but the Mids answered by taking a 10-9 advantage on triples from both Condie and Stapleton and a pair of field goals from Haley Unger (Fr., Marlboro, N.J.). After the lead changed hands a couple of times, Navy was able to extend its advantage out to 24-19 before Colgate closed to within one point at 24-23 with 7:10 left to play until halftime.

The Mids turned the ball over on their next time down the court, but the Raiders missed a shot on their resulting possession. Danielle Poblarp (So., Topeka, Kan.) promptly drained a three-point shot on Navy's next offensive opportunity then, after another Colgate miss, Condie hit a jumper to boost the Mids out to a 29-23 lead. A 90-second scoring drought by the two teams was broken by a triple from Stapleton, with Condie following one minute later with a layup to give the Mids a 34-23 lead with just under three minutes until intermission.

Colgate gave the ball back to Navy after another miss, then Condie again scored on another layup. Poblarp snared a defensive carom on the next trip down the court for the Raiders, then Stapleton drilled her fourth three-point field goal of the first half to give Navy a 39-23 advantage with 1:45 remaining until halftime.

The Raiders would tally a field goal with 10 seconds left in the frame to end a seven-minute scoring drought and cut the Navy cushion down to 39-25 at the break.

Colgate was 10-19 (52.6%) from the field with six turnovers after closing to within 25-24, but was 1-7 (14.3%) with four turnovers over the final seven minutes of play. Both teams shot 42 percent from the floor in the first half, but Navy was 15-35 while Colgate was 11-26. Aiding Navy's efforts was it connecting on 8-16 (50%) three-point shots while Colgate was 2-5 (40%) from beyond the arc.

Stapleton was 4-6 from long range in scoring her 12 points, while Condie was 2-4 from three-point land and 5-8 overall in also scoring 12 points.

"We turned the ball over on something like five of our first six possessions of the game," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper, "so that was a tough start, but we shot the ball well in the first half, especially in our three-point shooting. We probably win most games when we shoot the ball that well. I think we had some good dribble penetration and attacked their pressure pretty well and got some good looks."

"We've been focusing in practice on hitting shots," said Stapleton. "Our goal is to shoot above 40 percent (in games). We just came out hot. We all believe in each others shots, and the `one more pass' is great for us and believing we can all make them."

The Navy lead remained in double figures for the first eight minutes of the second half until a 5-0 run by the Raiders cut the margin down to 45-38. Dunham missed a three-point shot on Navy's next possession, but Sarah Reilly (Fr., Cincinnati, Ohio) was there for the offensive carom and putback. Colgate scored on its ensuing trip down the court to again make it a seven-point difference. Both teams had a pair of empty possessions, then Hannah Fenske (Fr., Albuquerque, N.M.) drilled a three-point shot to take the margin back to double figures at 50-40 with 8:10 left to play.

Colgate needed a little more than two minutes of clock time to slice that 10-point gap down to three at 50-47 with 5:49 showing on the clock. Dunham answered on Navy's next trip down the floor with a weaving layup while being fouled, and her resulting tally from the charity stripe doubled the lead to 53-47. The two teams again failed to score on their next two respective possessions, then Dunham connected on a three-point shot to take the Navy lead out to 56-47 with four minutes remaining. After a missed shot by the Raiders, Unger was fouled on the next Navy possession, and her two free throws gave the Mids an 8-0 run and a 58-47 lead with 3:09 showing on the clock.

Navy's lead would remain at least eight points over the remainder of the game.

Dunham accounted for 10 of Navy's final 14 points of the game, with Unger recording the remaining four points.

The Mids shot only 29.2 percent (7-24) from the floor in the second half, which included a 3-9 effort from three-point land, but the Raiders made just 2-8 (25%) three-point attempts and were held to 30-percent (9-30) shooting overall after halftime.

"Our team defense is great," said Stapleton, "we really rely on it, so we hunkered down and didn't let them score (toward the end of the game)."

Navy held a slight advantage in field goal percentage -- 37.3%-35.7% -- for the night but made 11-25 (44%) three-point attempts to a 4-13 (30.8%) effort by Colgate.

Both teams turned the ball over 13 times, with each of Colgate's turnovers coming by way of a Navy steal. Conversely, the Raiders tallied nine steals and held a slim 13-11 lead in points scored after turnovers.

Dunham and Stapleton -- who drained five triples -- each scored 15 points on the night, while Condie added 13. Also for the Mids, Unger posted eight points and eight rebounds, Poblarp dished out five assists, and while Justice Swett (So., Nashville, Tenn.) failed to scored she tallied seven rebounds, six steals and four assists.

"I am sure it was great for her confidence," said Pemper of Dunham's game. "She did a really nice job practice Friday and even Thursday, just keeping her head up. Who could have predicted this? She is a good scorer. It was a team effort. Danielle was a great point guard for us in the first half, Hannah hit that huge `three' when they cut it to seven and Taylor brought us home. She did the best against their pressure of all our point guards, that's why she was out there. She was confident and aggressive and attacked it and that was what we needed.

"Justice played great tonight, Haley played great tonight, both with their rebounding and defense. It was just a team effort. We had a lot of defensive breakdowns, but we had people recovering. And Colgate missed some shots they normally make."

Carole Harris scored 10 first-half points for Colgate but was held to just two points in the second half, while teammate Josie Stockill scored all of her 11 points after halftime.

Navy will take to the road for a pair of games next week, with contests slated for Wednesday at Lehigh and Feb. 21 at Holy Cross.