Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. ---- The Navy women's basketball team scored on six of its last seven possessions of the game before making a defensive stand in the waning seconds of a 67-66 victory by the Mids (6-3) over Liberty (0-6) Sunday afternoon at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

"Liberty is tough," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "I think five of their best players are freshmen. He (head coach Carey Green) has been to multiple NCAA Tournaments, so we knew this would be a battle."

Both teams went through lengthy scoring droughts during the game. Navy took a 15-10 lead late in the first quarter only to go almost seven minutes without a made field goal as Liberty regained the lead at 17-16. The Mids promptly ran off the next 15 points as part of a first-half closing 19-4 run that gave them a 35-21 lead at the break.

The Navy lead was still 14 points at 39-25, but Liberty sliced the margin down to 50-46 at the end of the third quarter. The Flames closed the stanza on a three-point field goal at the buzzer, which ignited an 11-0 run that gave them a 54-50 lead two minutes into the fourth quarter.

Liberty stretched its lead out to five points at 59-54 with six minutes remaining on the clock. Neither team scored again until Bianca Roach (So., Virginia Beach, Va.) made a layup with 4:52 still to play to pull Navy to within 59-56. That would be the first of six-straight possessions in which the Mids scored. After Roach's bucket, Justice Swett (Sr., Nashville, Tenn.) grabbed a defensive carom on one end of the court and then scored a layup after receiving a great pass from Hannah Fenske (Jr., Albuquerque, N.M.) to make the score 59-58. Ola Majurat scored for the Flames, but that was followed by a three-point field goal ---- after Swett grabbed an offensive board ---- by Taylor Dunham (Jr., Fort Belvoir, Va.) that tied the proceedings at 61-61.

Swett then forced a travelling violation on the Flames, then hit a jumper to give Navy a 63-61 lead with 2:39 still to play. A basket by Liberty tied the game again, but Swett fed Dunham for a layup to make the score 65-63 with 1:54 left on the clock. Liberty sliced that margin in half when Nene Johnson made one of two free throws with 1:18 remaining, but Fenske stretched it back to a three-point game when she scored on a layup with 1:07 showing on the clock.

Fenske slowly inched her way down the left side of the lane on the play, and then around a pick from Dunham. After setting the screen, Dunham retreated out of the lane toward the top of the key and when she left her spot the players guarding Fenske and Dunham both went with her allowing a wide open layup for Fenske.

"I just saw Taylor cutting across the lane," said Fenske of the play. "She just stopped and waited for me to run right off of her. It was really smart of her. She basically got me the wide open shot. I just waited and read what the defense gave me."

"I thought Hannah was a huge difference in those last five minutes," said Pemper. "She is such a competitor and gamer and smart player. It is not surprising she was involved in a play like that."

Liberty's Johnson scored again for the Flames, with her jumper with 45.9 seconds left drawing them to within 67-66. Navy then gave the ball back to the Flames with 31.3 seconds remaining when Ashanti Kennedy (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.) was whistled for a traveling violation. That was immediately followed by Liberty calling timeout.

The Flames inbounded the ball in front of the Navy bench and put it in the hands of Lela Sellers to bring it up the court. The 6-0 freshman guard stayed between the top of the key and the halfcourt stripe ---- while being guarded by the 5-4 Dunham ---- and with the remainder of her Liberty teammates camped along the baseline. At the five-second mark, Sellers started a drive down the left side of the free throw lane. She was hounded the entire way by Dunham, with Kennedy pinching in toward the lane to add one more roadblock on her path to the rim. Sellers slid her way through the two defenders and scooped a shot toward the basket with two seconds left. It flew over the rim before being grabbed by Keyen Green, who grabbed the miss and in the same motion shot the ball. It too missed the rim and the game clock expired.

"I knew she was going to try and take the last shot," said Dunham, "so as a defender I'm just looking to see when she might make her move. I'm looking at her waist and not the ball so I can't get misdirected."

However, the three officials discussed the play and then reviewed it on a monitor. They decided that the shot clock violation stood, but also that there were 1.1 seconds remaining in the game. This led to the Mids calling timeout. Kennedy inbounded the ball with a long pass that flew over halfcourt and into the hands of a sprinting Dunham to run out the final few ticks of the game.

"We didn't necessarily have any good runs," said Pemper of today's game. "Our three wasn't falling early, but we did a great job at the end of the second quarter to go in with a nice lead. I think just Liberty, they were the difference compared to Cleveland State (which Navy beat, 88-63 Saturday night). They are impressive with their execution, being well coached, their size, their athleticism and having big kid inside. Cleveland State plays more on the perimeter. We struggled inside tonight."

Navy was shooting just 36 percent from the field through the first 30 minutes of the game, but connected on 61.5 percent (8-13) of its shots in the final 10 minutes. The Mids never really found a consistent rhythm from long range as they ended the night 7-24 (29.2%) from three-point land.

Liberty shot over 57 percent from the field in the second half to end the game with an overall mark of 40 percent. The Flames were 0-6 from three-point range in the first half before sinking 6-10 shots from beyond the arc in the second half.

Liberty held a 47-28 advantage on the glass, including a 20-11 edge in offensive boards. However, Navy tallied 13 second chance points while the Flames scored just 11 such points. The Mids also held a 16-3 advantage in points scored after turnovers thanks to their committing seven turnovers and forcing 18.

Dunham and Swett were both named to the Navy Classic all-tournament team. Dunham made four three-point field goals, scored 20 points and dished out five assists, while Swett accrued 13 points, nine rebounds, six assists and two steals. Swett scored 10 of her points in the second half, with six coming in the fourth quarter.

Green finished the night with 16 points and 17 rebounds to lead Liberty in both statistics.

Navy will be back in Alumni Hall Wednesday night when it plays host to Goucher.

Navy Classic All-Tournament Team
Ashanti Abshaw, Cleveland State
Taylor Dunham, Navy
Keyen Green, Liberty
Janelle Hubbard, Richmond
Justice Swett, Navy