Final Stats

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Sarita Condie (So., Lovelock, Nev.) scored a career-high 20 points and Taylor Dunham (Fr., Fort Belvoir, Va.) added 11 second-half points to help the Navy women's basketball team post a 60-49 Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal round victory over Bucknell Friday night at Sojka Pavilion in Lewisburg, Pa. The two teams tied for fourth place in the league standings with 10-8 records, but the Bison defeated the Mids in both regular season games -- by a total of three points -- to garner the No. 4 seed while Navy was the No. 5 seed.

The win makes Navy the only league team to advance to the semifinal round of the tournament in each of the last seven seasons, a run that coincides with the arrival of head coach Stefanie Pemper. Additionally, Pemper has posted a 13-3 record in the tournament. Her 13 victories places her third among coaches in league history.

Navy moves on to face top-seeded American Monday night in Washington, D.C., in the semifinal round of the tournament. The other semifinal features No. 6 Lehigh (which defeated No. 3 Holy Cross this evening), playing at No. 2 Army (which defeated No. 7 Colgate in overtime).

It was a first half of swings as Navy endured a nearly nine-minute scoring drought, which allowed Bucknell to go from trailing 14-9 to holding a 20-14 lead. But then the Mids scored the final 11 points of the half to go into the break with a 28-22 advantage.

"Sarita definitely got us off to such a great start," said Pemper. "Just thinking that we had to be fearless, is a cliché word, offensively, we had to be in a little bit of an attack mode. Sarita was that, for sure. She fell into a little bit of a lull, then; she missed a couple of shots, maybe got a little fatigued. And we had that huge lull, and then we ended on such a spurt."

Condie was 5-10 from the floor with a trio of three-pointers -- two of which were Navy's first two buckets of the game -- to lead the Mids in scoring in the frame with 15 points. She then opened the scoring in the second half with another triple to boost Navy to a 31-22 lead.

Bucknell chipped away at the deficit and soon closed to within three points at 33-30, but Dunham hit a three-pointer to double the lead. After a Bucknell field goal made the score 36-32, Dunham again answered with another trey to again stretch the lead to seven points.

The Bison had another run in them and this time they winnowed the margin down to 39-37 with nine minutes remaining. Condie responded with a jumper on the next Navy possession then, after Jacquie Klotz turned the ball over, Hannah Fenske (Fr., Albuquerque, N.M.) buried a three-point shot to give Navy a 44-37 advantage. Bucknell's Carly Richardson made a triple on the next Bison trip down the court, but Fenske responded a few seconds later with a jumper to make the score 46-40 with 7:24 left to play.

Bucknell missed a pair of shots on its next possession before a Bison foul gave the ball back to Navy. Dunham made it four Navy possessions in a row with points as she made her third three-point shot of the half to give Navy a 49-40 lead with 6:32 remaining on the clock. Bucknell would commit another turnover, and that led to Marina Muenster (Fr., Coppell, Texas) sinking one of two free throws to expand the lead to 10 points. Audrey Dotson hit a jumper on the next Bucknell possession, but Justice Swett (So., Nashville, Tenn.) made Navy's 10th triple of the game to give the Mids points on six-straight trips down the court and a 53-42 lead with just under five minutes remaining.

"When Hannah hit that between the legs jumper; it was so confident," said Pemper. "Those two (Fenske and Condie), and obviously Taylor had some really nice confidence too. There was good ball handling out there and we were really unselfish."

Navy would tally three points on free throws on its next two possessions to build a 56-42 lead with 3:25 left in the game.

Navy shot 40.4 percent from the field in the game, which included a 35.7 percent (10-28) effort from three-point land. The Mids held Bucknell to 34.6 percent shooting, with the Bison sinking just 21.1 percent (4-19) of their three-point attempts.

Navy also scored 23 points off of the 16 turnovers it forced the Bison into, while Bucknell tallied only six points after the eight turnovers recorded by the Mids. Also, even though Bucknell held a 14-8 advantage on the offensive glass, both teams scored only nine second-chance points.

In addition to Condie's 20 points being a career high -- as was her four triples -- it also marked the first time all season a Mid had scored 20 points in a game (the previous high was 18). Dunham was 3-5 from behind the arc in the second half after missing her lone field goal attempts of the first half. She also contributed three assists and two steals in the game. Joining that duo in double figures was Fenske with 13.

"We know we are shooters, so we have just been focusing on staying confident even in games when we don't shoot well," said Condie. "Tonight, when one of us got going, the others seemed to feel, `why not us?'."

Clair DeBoer led Bucknell with 15 points, while Dotson closed out her career with 13 points and seven rebounds.

"I think we did really well," said Condie of Navy's defense. "Their bigs are really talented. Audrey Dotson is an all-Patriot League player and had a really successful career here. And Claire DeBoer is really strong. I think our posts stepped up tonight. They did what they had to do to play defense. And our guards did really well in focusing on shutting down baseline drives and their shooters."

"Jimmy Colloton, our assistant, does this scout and he really knows them well," said Pemper. "I thought our players did a really nice job with their personnel. We had to focus on Klotz, the rookie of the year in the league, and we did a good job on her. Sarita stepped up and guarded her at times, and Justice guarded her. We weren't able to outrebound them, but a great defense; a lot of effort, a lot of desire, a lot of determination."