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ANNAPOLIS, Md. ---- The Navy women's basketball team put together one of its largest rallies in school history to come away with a 50-49 victory over Holy Cross Saturday afternoon at Alumni Hall in Annapolis. The Mids (10-10, 4-5 Patriot League) trailed the Crusaders (8-12, 5-4) by nine points at halftime, by 12 points midway through the third quarter and by seven points with less than four minutes remaining.

Additionally, Navy scored 24 points in the 10-minute fourth quarter after scoring 26 points through three quarters of play.

"That was the most unusual game," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "I thought we were lifeless in the first half, passionless. We were lucky we were not down more."

Neither team was able to generate any offense in the first quarter as Holy Cross held a 7-5 advantage after 10 minutes before taking a 23-14 lead at halftime. Navy's five first-quarter points and 14 first-half points were both season lows, respectively, for the Mids.

Holy Cross extended its lead out to 26-14 with 6:34 left in the third stanza. The margin fluctuated between 12 and seven points over the remainder of the frame, which ended with the Crusaders holding a 33-26 advantage.

Navy had started to show some signs of life offensively at the end of the third quarter as Ashanti Kennedy (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) tallied the last four points of the period for either team with jumpers on back-to-back possessions to slice what was an 11-point gap down to seven. She promptly opened the final period with another jumper to pull the Mids to within five points at 33-28.

The Mids were 1-12 from three-point range through three quarters, but Sarita Condie (Jr., Lovelock, Nev.) connected on a pair of triples in the early stages of the fourth quarter to cut the difference between the teams down to three points at 37-34 with 7:50 showing on the clock. It would again be a three-point game after Molly Sanders (Fr., Ames, Iowa) drained a three-point shot of her own to make the score 41-38 with 5:34 left to play. A missed shot by the Crusaders was followed by an offensive foul whistled on the Mids during a loose ball, which wad followed by Holy Cross sinking back-to-back jumpers to make it a 45-38 contest with four minutes left.

Kennedy answered with a jumper (45-40, 3:37), then a Holy Cross missed shot was followed by Justice Swett (Jr., Nashville, Tenn.) scoring a layup off of a great feed from Condie (45-42, 2:51). Swett then gathered in a carom ---- her 11th of the game ---- after Holy Cross misfired on a three-point attempt, and shoveled the ball to Sanders who threw a pass that traveled three quarters the length of the court to Kennedy who sprinted ahead of the defense for a layup that made the score 45-44 with 2:19 still to play.

Holy Cross called timeout once it brought the ball over halfcourt. The Crusaders converted after the break when Molly Hourigan scored on a scoop shot after making a nice move in the paint with 2:02 remaining. Hourigan proceeded to block the ball out of bounds on the next Navy possession. Sanders inbounded under the basket to Kennedy, who had sliced down the middle of the lane to score while being fouled with 1:33 left to play. Kennedy would miss the free throw attempt, however, to keep the Crusaders in front, 47-46.

Kennedy made another great play on the other end of the court. The ball was knocked out of bounds by the Mids with seven seconds remaining on the shot clock. The Crusaders inbounded the ball but struggled to get off, with Kennedy eventually blocking a desperation triple attempt just prior to the clock expiring. The ball remained loose after the block, which meant the Mids would inbound the ball themselves with 1:01 left to play.

After the Mids inbounded, the ball soon found its way into the hands of Condie who started to drive down the left wing before being met by a defender. Still continuing her trek to the basket, she lofted the ball over the defender to a cutting and wide open Makeba Ndifang (So., Boonsboro, Md.) who scored on the layup to give Navy a 48-47 lead with 49 seconds left.

Navy's defense held Holy Cross to a missed shot with Sanders snaring the board and running some time off the clock eventually being fouled with 25.1 seconds left. That was the fourth team foul on the Crusaders, and it led to the Mids calling timeout to inbound the ball in front of their own bench. Navy ran off four seconds before Condie was fouled. After missing the first foul shot, she made the second to give Navy a 49-47 lead with 21.7 seconds left.

Holy Cross called its final timeout and, like Navy, chose to advance the ball over halfcourt for the inbounds pass. After the ball was entered, Infiniti Thomas-Waheed tried to pass it to Hourigan who was cutting down the lane. However, she was delayed slightly due to three defenders moving with her. Kennedy met the pass and was able to knock it out of the way and into the hands of Sanders, who was fouled with 15.1 seconds still to play. She walked to the other end of the court and missed her first foul shot before making her second to give Navy a 50-47 lead.

Navy's defense again was strong as the final seconds ticked away. The only three-point shot Holy Cross was able to take was a 22-foot fadeaway attempt by Lisa Mifsud with four seconds left that hit the front of the rim and bounced back toward the free throw line. Teammate Tricia Byrne grabbed the ball and shot it from that 15-foot distance. Her attempt fell threw the rim as the final horn sounded.

Navy would score at least one point on each of its last seven possessions of the game to outscore Holy Cross 12-4 during that stretch.

Now in its 25th season in the Patriot League, the lone time the Mids had rallied from a larger halftime deficit to win a league game was a 12-point comeback against Lafayette four years ago. The nine-point rally also is tied for the sixth-largest halftime deficit overcome to win a game in school history.

"We just competed better in the second half," said Pemper. "Basketball is a funny game; that zone didn't look too good early on, but right at the point we thought about getting out of it is when it started to become effective. But then we had to score.

"I'm really happy for the players. They really picked up their effort."

"This win really means a lot," said Condie. "Holy Cross is a great team. We lost to them both times last year, we lost to them earlier this year. Going into the second half down nine points (and winning) is a great testament to our team for never giving up

"We were a lot more aggressive (on offense in the second half). I think it started on the defensive end, which is kind of a trend for our team. But we got a lot more physical, a lot more aggressive and a lot more confident. Shots started falling and we started to get better looks."

Navy had totaled one three-point field goal, 12 made field goals and was shooting 27.3 percent from the field through three quarters. The Mids were 9-12 (75%) from the floor, including 3-5 (60%) from three-point range, in the fourth quarter. Holy Cross also shot the ball well. The Crusaders shot over 40 percent from the field in each of the last three quarters ---- including a 47.1 percent effort in the final stanza. Both teams shot 37 percent from the field for the game.

The Mids were hurt by a 4-13 (30.8%) effort from the foul line (Holy Cross was 5-8) and by committing 18 turnovers while forcing 15. However, Navy held a large advantage on the glass with the Mids snaring 19 offensive rebounds ---- but scoring only five second-chance points ---- and 43 boards in all while limiting Holy Cross to 10 offensive caroms and 30 rebounds for the game.

Kennedy, who had scored 18 points in the first game against Holy Cross this season, tallied 15 second-half points and 17 points for the game on 8-13 shooting from the field. She also contributed four rebounds, three steals and two blocks in her 30 minutes of playing time.

"A lot of people stepped up big tonight," said Kennedy. "We played great defense."

"Ashanti was the difference," said Pemper. "If we were better coaches we would have more sets to just get her the ball in that situation. She was just finding the basket. It seemed every shot she took in the second half went in."

Condie added 15 points to go along with four assists, while five of Swett's season-high tying 11 boards came on the offensive end. Ndifang entered the game having scored four points in her career and all of them coming in her lone other appearance of the season against Johns Hopkins in mid-December, but she accrued six points and five rebounds today.

"Justice had a really nice second half," said Pemper. "Sarita's two big three's, Makeba coming off the bench ---- essentially scoring the game-winning field goal ---- and finishing and rebounding, but Ashanti's spirit was terrific."

Hourigan led all players in the game with 18 points to go along with her 10 boards.

Navy will take to the road for its next two games. The Mids will play Thursday at Boston and Saturday at Colgate.