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ANNAPOLIS, Md. â€"â€" It took a game-closing 9-0 run before Army West Point separated itself from the Navy women's basketball team for good in a 49-34 victory by the Black Knights over the Mids Saturday at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

"It was a real intense game," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "I think you had players on both teams playing really hard. You saw a lot of exhaustion and sweat. Most teams we play against we receive compliments for being the scrappier team, but when we play Army both teams are equally scrappy. I loved how we fought, certainly coming off the last game against them. They just made more plays. It did come down to executing a little bit and making more shots. We didn't have enough people shoot well to beat them. We hold them to a season low, but we scored a season low."

The two teams played to a 12-12 standstill through the opening quarter of play. The Black Knights (23-2, 14-1) then scored the first five points of the second stanza as part of a 17-3 spurt that gave them a 29-15 advantage. The Mids (14-12, 8-7) tallied their second and final field goal of the frame with 80 seconds remaining to go into halftime down 29-18.

The defensive showcase for both teams continued in the third quarter as a total of 15 points were scored between the teams (8 for Army West Point). That sent the visitors into the start of the final quarter with a 37-25 lead.

The score had been 37-23 until Christina Potts (Fr., Orlando, Fla.) hit a short jumper just prior to the end of the third quarter. That began would end up being the start of a 7-0 Navy run â€"â€" capped by a basket and foul shot by Potts â€"â€" to make the score 37-30 in favor of Army West Point with 6:39 left to play.

The Black Knights answered with a three-point field goal on their ensuing trip down the court to increase their lead back to double figures at 40-30. Navy garnered a pair of offensive boards on its next possession, with Haley Unger (So., Marlboro, N.J.) grabbing the latter of the two and scoring on a short jumper to cut the margin down to eight points with 5:54 showing on the clock. An offensive foul by the Black Knights gave the ball back to the Mids, and they converted when Ashanti Kennedy (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) nailed a jumper to cut the margin down to 40-34 with 4:52 still to play.

Unger stole the ball for the Mids and was fouled on the very next Army West Point possession. After play resumed, Potts would miss a trey for the Mids, but Justice Swett (Jr., Nashville, Tenn.) snared the offensive board to let Navy keep possession. The ball soon returned into the hands of Potts, who missed a second jumper. This time, Aliyah Murray was there to grab the carom for the Black Knights. They would miss a shot of their own on their next trip down the floor, but grabbed the loose ball and that led to a Kelsey Minato triple to make the game 43-34 with 3:24 left to play.

Peri Curtis (Sr., Coronado, Calif.) had her shot blocked on Navy's next offensive possession, then another second chance opportunity on the resulting Army West Point possession led to a basket from the paint that stretched the margin out to 45-34. Navy was one shot and done on its next chance with the ball, which was followed by Army West Point scoring on another inside shot and building a 47-34 lead with 2:03 remaining on the clock.

"I think we made some adjustments after the first game against them," said Pemper. "So much was the players and their mindset. The third quarter wasn't pretty. Every time we looked up at the scoreboard we were down 10, so we were like, 'hey, we're winning this quarter.' We just hung around. We just couldn't get that basket to really put pressure on them."

After making five field goals and scoring 12 points in the first quarter, Navy totaled just eight field goals and was held to single digits in each of the remaining three stanzas. The Mids shot just 22 percent from the field, which was hindered by Navy scoring just four second chance points on its 18 offensive rebounds.

Army West Point shot 37.3 percent from the field for the game and notched 15 second chance points on its 17 offensive boards. The Black Knights, who entered the today scoring an average of 71.4 points per game during the league season, also held a 20-12 edge in points scored in the paint.

Potts led Navy with 10 points and ranked second on the team to Curtis with six rebounds. Curtis herself had an equal number of points to rebounds (seven).

Minato was 5-16 from the field, including 3-9 from three-point range, in scoring a game-high 13 points to go along with five assists. Aimee Oertner totaled 12 points, 10 rebounds, seven blocks and six turnovers for the Black Knights.

Navy will close the home portion of its season Wednesday night when the Mids play host to American.