Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. â€"â€" American shot 80 percent from the field in the fourth quarter to rally for a 61-56 victory over the Navy women's basketball team Wednesday night at Bender Arena in Washington, D.C.

The Eagles outscored the Mids 20-9 in the final period, making tonight a near reversal of when the teams met one week ago in Annapolis. In that game, Navy outscored American 20-6 in the fourth quarter to post a 65-52 victory.

"I thought their kids (American) played really well," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "They shot the ball really well â€"â€" 69 percent in the second half, which is crazy. They just executed their ball screen really well. We couldn't stop it. They played really well and we were not able to hit some timely shots. We got some good shots and were not able to hit them."

The loss drops Navy's record in league play to 9-9 (and its overall record to 15-14) and places the Mids sixth in the Patriot League's final regular season standings. Navy will face third-seeded Loyola Monday in Baltimore in the quarterfinal round of the league tournament. American improved its league mark to 5-13 (and its overall record to 7-22) with the win and gives the Eagles the No. 7 seed in the tournament.

Navy quickly scored the first seven points of the game on its way to building a 20-11 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Mids took a 29-23 lead at halftime and stretched the margin out to as many as nine points â€"â€" 39-30 â€"â€" early in the third quarter. The Navy advantage was 47-41 through three quarters of play.

A Taylor Dunham (So., Fort Belvoir, Va.) layup at the start of the final stanza gave the Mids a 49-41 lead, but the Eagles ran off the next 12 points to take a 53-49 advantage with just over seven minutes left on the clock. A Justice Swett (Jr., Nashville, Tenn.) jumper cut the margin in half, but American scored the ensuing four points to build a 57-51 lead with five minutes still to play.

Navy closed to within three points when Sarita Condie (Jr., Lovelock, Nev.) drained her fourth three-point field goal of the night to make the score 59-56 with 1:01 remaining. American scored on the other end with 34 seconds left to expand the margin back to five points, then the Mids saw their field goal attempt on the other end of the court miss its mark and bounce out of bounds with less than 12 seconds still to play.

American connected on 8 of 10 (80%) shots from the field in the final quarter while holding Navy to 4 of 14 (28.6%) shooting in the quarter. The Eagles also were 2 of 3 (66.7%) from three-point range in the last frame while the Mids were 1 of 9 (11.1%) from beyond the arc in the same period.

Navy, which made 6 of 8 (75%) shots in the third quarter, ended the night shooting 39.2 percent from the field. American, which made 61.5 percent of its third-quarter attempts in addition to its 80 percent shooting in the fourth quarter, closed the night with an overall mark of 50.0 percent. It is the second game in a row in which the Mids have let an opponent shoot 50 percent from the field for the game.

Helping the Eagles to their win was their grabbing twice as many rebounds as the Mids did, 38-19, which included a 13-5 advantage in offensive boards.

Condie connected on 5 of 10 shots from the floor (4-6 from three-point range) to score a game-high 16 points. Joining her in double figures was teammate Molly Sanders (Fr., Ames, Iowa) with 10 points.

"Molly has definitely been playing with some confidence and practicing with some confidence," said Pemper. "She has been really good in practice and I think that is what has helped her. She is a good player and was a really good player in high school and you see her do some things naturally that she is really comfortable with on the court."

For American, both Cecily Carl and Kaitlyn Lewis scored 13 points.

Patriot League Tournament Pairings
First Round -- Saturday, March 5
#10 Boston at #7 American
#9 Lafayette at #8 Colgate
Quarterfinals â€" Monday, March 7
American / Boston at #2 Bucknell**
#6 Navy at #3 Loyola
Colgate / Lafayette at #1 Army West Point**
#5 Holy Cross at #4 Lehigh
Semifinals â€" Friday, March 13 â€" at highest seed remaining in tournament
Final â€" Saturday, March 14 â€" at highest seed heading into semifinals
** Due to Army West Point and Bucknell being tied in the league standings and the teams splitting the head-to-head regular season meetings, Thursday's College Basketball News RPI will be used to break the tie. It is expected that Army West Point will garner the top seed.