Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Despite the Navy women's basketball team suffering through two lengthy droughts without a made field goal, it wasn't until a game-closing 8-1 run before American could finally separate itself from the Mids in a 41-29 victory by the Eagles Wednesday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

The loss drops Navy's record to 9-8 against the Patriot League this season with one game remaining on the slate (Saturday at home against Loyola). The Mids are tied with Lehigh for fifth place (Navy holds the tiebreker with the Mountain Hawks) and sit one game in back of Bucknell and Holy Cross. Meanwhile, American improved its league mark to 15-2 and clinched the outright league title.

"We exactly didn't do the things we wanted to do to try and score against American," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We prepared the last couple of days for something specific what American does to us, and our players just didn't execute a smart game plan."

Neither team shot the ball well from the outset of the game. The Mids had made the only field goal through the first five minutes of the night. Navy would hold a 10-4 advantage with 12:24 remaining in the first half, but scored just one field goal over the next 10 minutes to allow American to take a 15-12 advantage. A Taylor Dunham (Fr., Fort Belvoir, Va.) triple knotted the score at 15-15 with 1:40 left to play, but the Eagles tallied the last four points of the half to take a 19-15 lead at the break.

After American opened the second half with a field goal, Navy scored five quick points on a three-point basket by Sarah Reilly (Fr., Cincinnati, Ohio) and a jumper by Justice Swett (So., Nashville, Tenn.) to close to within 21-20 with 18:18 still to play in the game. American would tally the next 10 points -- over a 10-minute span -- to build a 31-20 lead with 9:14 left on the clock. The Mids broke their scoring drought with a pair of free throw by Danielle Poblarp (So., Topeka, Kan.) at the 8:27 mark, then Swett made one free throw with 6:33 remaining to make the score 33-23 in favor of the Eagles.

Swett's tally started a 6-0 run by Navy -- field goal by Dunham at 5:24, one free throw by Ashanti Kennedy (So., Virginia Beach, Va.) at 4:14 and field goal by Peri Curtis (So., San Diego, Calif.) at 3:33 -- that allowed the Mids to winnow the deficit down to just five points at 33-28. American missed a shot on its next trip down the court, but the Mids missed an opportunity to cut into the margin even more when a Curtis turnover gave the ball back to the Eagles.

Lauren Crisler would end a nearly five-minute scoring drought for American on a layup with 2:29 remaining. Kennedy was fouled while shooting on Navy's next possession, and she made one of her two attempts from the foul line to make the score 35-29 with 2:12 still to play. A turnover by the Eagles gave Navy another chance, but the Mids gave it right back to American on a turnover of their own with 1:46 remaining. Ari Booth would sink one free throw for the Eagles with 1:28 left, then her second missed its mark with the carom being knocked out of bounds by the Mids. Crisler would score on a layup off the inbounds pass while being fouled to boost the American lead out to 39-29 with 1:24 remaining on the clock.

"We sort of loss in a way we have lost some games," said Pemper. "Even though you have a young team you want things to progress; you're playing the number one team on your homecourt, we have the proverbial nothing to lose. We needed to come out certainly with better basketball and rise a little bit to the occasion, and we really didn't. It goes beyond not shooting well; it goes to not executing, it goes to not mentally coming to play against the team that's winning the league. It's really disappointing. The team has worked so hard all year, it is not logical that this happens."

Navy made just 10 field goals in the game, with six of those coming in the first half. The Mids ended the game shooting just 20 percent for the night, which included a 4-28 (14.3%) effort from three-point range.

Navy's defense held American's offense 22 points below its season average on just 35.7 percent (15-42) shooting from the field. And while the Eagles were just 1-7 from three-point land, they also were 10-15 from the foul line while the Mids were 5-8 from the charity stripe. American also tallied 19 points off of the 18 turnovers it forced Navy into, while the Mids scored nine points after the 14 turnovers by the Eagles.

Reilly, Swett and Dunham combined for 16 of Navy's 29 points, while American's Jen Dumiak was 7-10 from the field and 8-8 from the foul line in scoring 22 points.

Patriot League Standings (last game)
15-2 American (Bucknell)
13-4 Army (Lafayette)
10-7 Holy Cross (Boston U.)
10-7 Bucknell (at American)
9-8 Navy (Loyola)
9-8 Lehigh (Colgate)
6-11 Lafayette (at Army)
6-11 Colgate (at Lehigh)
5-12 Loyola (at Navy)
2-13 Boston U. (at Holy Cross)