Box Score

ANNAPOLIS, Md. â€"â€" Peri Curtis (Sr., Coronado, Calif.) totaled 14 points and eight rebounds to help the Navy women's basketball team hang on for a 45-38 victory over Loyola Wednesday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

"We've changed our starting lineup the last couple of games," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "Arguably some people need some time to get more comfortable in their situations. Every single game we play is big. We're in that interesting spot (tied for fifth with Loyola); you don't want to be in those seven through 10 spots, for a couple of reasons including having to go play one of the top two seeds."

After Loyola (9-14, 6-6 Patriot League) scored the opening field goal of the game, Navy (12-11, 6-6) ran off the next 11 points and held an 11-4 advantage at the end of the first quarter. The Mids would never led the lead slip from their hands, but the cushion was a precarious one for the rest of the contest. However, each time the Greyhounds threatened, Navy responded.

Loyola sliced the margin down to 20-19 after the first possession of the third quarter, but a Curtis basket started a 6-0 Navy run. After Greyhounds cut the differenced down to 29-27, Danielle Poblarp (Jr., Topeka, Kan.) drained a three-point field goal to make it a five-point game. Loyola then ended the third quarter with a pair of free throws to close to within 32-29, but Poblarp opened the scoring in the fourth quarter with another triple to give the Mids a 35-29 lead.

That advantage would soon grow to 39-31 following a basket by Ashanti Kennedy (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) with 6:17 left in the quarter. The Mids then went cold from the field, which allowed the Greyhounds to pull to within 39-38 following a jumper from Colleen Marshall with just under two minutes left to play.

Navy used the majority of the 30-second shot clock before Justice Swett (Jr., Nashville, Tenn.) wove her way into the lane for a layup â€"â€" her only shot of the night â€"â€" to give the Mids a 41-38 lead with 1:27 still to play. Kennedy ended the ensuing Loyola possession with a blocked shot that was gathered in by Sarita Condie (Jr., Lovelock, Nev.). Kennedy missed a shot on the other end, with Loyola grabbing the loose ball and calling timeout with 29.2 seconds left.

The new women's basketball rules allowed Loyola the option to advance the ball to in front of its bench after the timeout, which the Greyhounds did. Kennedy then made the first of two huge plays. The Greyhounds tried an inbound pass down the sideline, which Kennedy knocked out of bounds. The officials ended up taking a look at the play and after the review determined that Kennedy had knocked the ball off of a Loyola player and awarded the ball to the Mids.

Kennedy inbounded the ball with a long pass to a sprinting and open Condie, but while the ball was in the air the Greyhounds fouled Curtis without any time running off the clock. Curtis made the first shot to give the Mids a 42-38 lead, but missed the second. However, Kennedy swooped into the lane to control the rebound and let the Mids run some more time off the clock until Curtis was again fouled with 25.7 seconds left. She missed the first attempt while making the second (43-28), then Loyola's Steph Smith was called for a foul on the inbounds pass which sent Condie to the foul line. Condie made the first attempt to give Navy a 44-38 lead with 19.5 seconds remaining before missing the second. This time Curtis snared the loose ball and gave it back to Condie who was again fouled with 15.7 seconds remaining. Once again, she was 1-2 from the foul line, but her connection made it a three possession game at 45-38.

"We kind of made the game end strangely," said Pemper. "For such a great game, we never really let Loyola come down (on offense) at the end. I think we hit the first one to make it a four-point game, and that was huge. Then it was just weird with us going to the line so many times.

"Justice making that layup, Peri hitting the baseline jumper in front of our bench and Dani's two three's were all huge."

Navy shot 30.9 percent (17-55) from the field including 5-17 (29.4%) from three-point range and was just 6-13 (46.2%) from the foul line. However, the Mids held Loyola to 16-47 shooting (34%) that included a 2-15 (13.3%) effort from three-point land. The Greyhounds also were 4-4 from the free throw line.

The Mids also forced the Greyhounds into twice as many turnovers as they committed themselves. Navy turned 16 Loyola turnovers into 14 points, while the Greyhounds notched four points after the eight turnovers by the Mids. Ten of those 16 Loyola turnovers came off of Navy steals.

In addition to her 14 points (6-13 shooting) and eight boards, Curtis added three steals, two assists and a blocked shot. Tonight's effort came on the heels of her scoring a career-high 17 points in Navy's win at Colgate Saturday.

"I just felt I had to step-up," said Curtis on her play of late. "I am a senior and my teammates are counting on me, so I want to play for them."

Both Condie and Kennedy ended the game with seven points, with Kennedy also contributing five caroms.

Loyola's Marshall, who scored 24 points in the first meeting of the season with Navy, was 4-16 from the field and 1-4 from three-point range on her way to scoring 11 points this evening.

Navy will close out its week of home games Saturday when the Mids play host to Lafayette at 7 p.m.