Final Stats

EASTON, Pa. â€"â€" Hannah Fenske's (Jr., Albuquerque, N.M.) lone field goal of the game, a three-pointer with 28 seconds left, proved to be the final points scored in a 68-65 victory by the Navy women's basketball team over Lafayette Saturday afternoon at the Kirby Sports Center, in Easton, Pa.

The victory by the Mids (17-6, 11-2 Patriot League) over the Leopards (2-23, 1-12) keeps Navy tied with Bucknell atop the league standings with five games remaining on the slate. The win, which gives the Mids a 6-1 record in league games decided by five or fewer points, also assures them of a top-six placing in the final league table, which gives them a first-round tournament bye. Additionally, today's victory gives Navy a school-record seven-game road game winning streak.

'We thought Lafayette played well and it was just a really good game," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We weren't able to do a good job on their top-two scorers and we faced a lot of adversity, and we were able to pull it out. Great win."

Lafayette ended both a 22-game losing streak and a 14-game league losing streak with its victory Wednesday over Holy Cross. The Leopards carried that momentum into the start of today's game as they took a 22-15 lead at the end of the first quarter. The 22 points scored by the Leopards tied them for the most allowed by the Mids in the opening frame this season (Wake Forest, Arkansas), and the seven-point deficit by Navy was the second largest for the Mids through 10 minutes of play this year (eight points, Arkansas).

Navy quickly notched the opening seven points of the second quarter to tie the game midway through the stanza. The score would be tied twice and the lead change hands five times over the remainder of the quarter that ended with Taylor Dunham (Jr., Fort Belvoir, Va.) draining a 25-foot triple just before the buzzer sounded to end the half to give the Mids a 35-31 lead at the break.

"We wanted to do a better job of finding Ptasinski," said Pemper on Navy's second quarter effort. "She hit three three's and came out really hot. We felt we gave up so many points and how could we do a better job of that inside and on the three-point line. And then we were making some mental errors and if we could fix those we would be better. We were, and we were really happy with second quarter and the momentum from Taylor's three just before the buzzer to send us into half up four. That was a really big shot."

The Mids have struggled in the third quarter this season, but today they built an eight-point lead at both 48-40 and 50-42 before taking a 53-47 lead into the final 10 minutes.

Sarita Condie (Sr., Lovelock, Nev.) accounted for 12 of Navy's 18 third quarter points. She was 4-5 from the field including a 2-3 effort from three-point land during the quarter, and tallied the team's final nine points of the frame.

"I think it was mostly taking advantage of open shots," said Condie of her third quarter effort. "Taylor did a really good job of noticing when there was a mismatch on me and getting me the ball when a bigger girl was on me to take advantage of it. Other than that, as a team we wanted to come out more on fire (in the third quarter) than we did at the start of the game. We really made that our mission.

"Lafayette did a really good job of denying me the basketball and trying to take me out of the game. I came out (in the third quarter) with a will to figure out a way to make it work. My teammates also did their best to try and find me."

Navy quickly scored the opening four points of the final quarter to extend its lead to 10 points (57-47) just 40 seconds into the stanza. A 6-0 Lafayette run ensued, and then the margin hovered between four and six points until it became a two-point game at 63-61 with three minutes remaining.

Condie was fouled on the other end of the floor and her two made free throws briefly made the lead four points (65-61). Neither team scored on their ensuing respective possessions, then back-to-back jumpers by Lafayette's Olivia Gumbs sandwiched around a missed Navy trey tied the game at 65-65 with 54 seconds still on the clock.

Kaila Clark (Fr., Hughesville, Md.) missed a jump shot with 40 seconds left on Navy's next offensive opportunity, but the 5-foot, 4-inch Dunham scooped up the offensive carom for the Mids. The ball would be worked around the court until it went into the hands of Fenske on the right wing. She buried the triple to break the sixth tie of the game.

"Taylor grabbed a big offensive board for us and started the offense," said Fenske. "I saw Justice Swett (Sr., Nashville, Tenn.) down low and she passed it out to me. I had a lot of confidence in the shot because Justice gave up her shot for me. It was a lot of confidence from my teammates that helped me with the shot."

"Hannah is a really good shooter and is having a good shooting year," said Pemper. "I don't remember her taking seven shots, and the stats say she was a little off but we were confident she was going to hit that shot. It was great that Justice found her."

Eschewing a timeout, Lafayette ran its offense but was stymied by the Navy defense until Anna Ptasinski, who began the game by sinking a trio of three-point shots in the first quarter, rushed a three-point attempt with five seconds left. Her shot was off its mark and snared by Swett. The Mids were able to run the clock down until the Leopards committed a foul with 1.1 seconds remaining. Inbounding uncontested near halfcourt, Navy was able to run the remaining time off the clock to second the victory.

"We were really happy with our effort," said Pemper. "Every game now feels like a fistfight. They (Lafayette) did some nice strategy things try to take away some of our better options. Really impressive Sarita was able to have a great game. We're thrilled to get 68 points on the board and four players in double figures. One of our goals was to try and turn them over. We're toward the top of the league in turnovers forced and I thought that was an important part of the game. Just made a lot of big shots when we needed to."

Including today's result, 10 of the last 12 Navy at Lafayette games have been decided by single digits, with eight of those games being determined by no more than five points.

Navy shot 42.6 percent from the floor and made 6-18 (33.3%) of its three-point shots in the game. Lafayette shot over 50 percent from the field in three quarters â€"â€" including 66.7 percent in the first quarter and 63.6 percent in the third â€"â€" to end the game with an overall mark of 53.2 percent. The Leopards also were 7-17 (41.2%) from beyond the three-point arc and made 8-11 foul shots. The Mids were 4-4 from the charity stripe.

Both teams grabbed 31 rebounds, with Navy holding a 12-4 edge in offensive boards. The Mids also forced 21 turnovers while committing 11 of their own.

Four Mids scored in double figures in the game, with Condie's 19 leading the way and leaving her 19 points shy of becoming the 20th player in Navy history to reach 1,000 career points. She ended the game 6-9 from the field and made 3-4 three-point shots.

Also reaching double digits for the Mids were Dunham with 12, Clark with 10 and Ashanti Kennedy (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.) with 10. Swett led Navy with eight boards while Clark snared five caroms.

"It helps so much," said Pemper on the scoring runs by different Mids tonight. "Kaila's scoring was different tonight, but it was what Lafayette was giving us. She knocked them down and we found her. And then Ashanti, we thought there was a decent matchup to exploit and she did. Getting contributions from different people is going to be really important moving forward."

Harriett Ottewill-Soulsby matched Condie's scoring effort to lead the Leopards.

Navy will now play four of its final five games of the regular season at home. That stretch begins with a Wednesday night game against Lehigh and continues with the Army-Navy Star Game on Feb. 18.