Final Stats

WASHINGTON, D.C. â€" A furious fourth quarter rally by the Navy women's basketball team fell just short as the Mids dropped a 50-48 decision to American Wednesday night at Bender Arena in Washington, D.C. The loss ends Navy's (20-7, 13-3) four-game winning streak and drops it from a tie with Bucknell for first place in the Patriot League standings. American improved to 10-6 in league play and 13-14 overall on the year with the win.

Navy will face Bucknell Saturday at 7 p.m. in Alumni Hall and then will play host to American one week from tonight in the final game of the regular season.

"Credit American," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We knew they were really tough at home and they could shoot the ball well and they are hard to keep in front of you defensively. They just do a really nice job executing their offense, but they also execute their defense well. They defended us well."

Navy's offense struggled to find a gear in the first 30 minutes of the game. The teams were tied at 12-12 through one quarter of play, but the Mids scored just eight second quarter points to head into halftime trailing 26-20. Those 20 points were a season low â€"â€" by seven points â€"â€" for the Mids at intermission. Navy then was outscored 17-6 in the third quarter to fall behind, 43-26.

The Mids were a different team right from the start of the fourth quarter. Navy scored the first 13 points of the frame to close to within 43-39 less than five minutes into the stanza. It soon became a three-point game (45-42) when Taylor Dunham (Jr., Fort Belvoir, Va.) made a three-point shot with 2:27 left on the clock.

Navy got the ball back after a steal by Sarita Condie (Sr., Lovelock, Nev.), but gave it right back to the Eagles on a turnover. Another Navy steal gave the Mids another chance to slice into the lead more. Dunham would miss a three-point shot when her attempt went halfway through the hoop before popping out, with the carom gathered in by American with 90 seconds still to play.

The Mids forced American into a missed shot, with Justice Swett (Sr., Nashville, Tenn.) there for the rebound with 75 seconds remaining. Navy had two shots on its next trip down the floor â€"â€" a missed two-point attempt by Laurel Jaunich (Fr., Charlotte, Vt.) and a missed triple by Dunham that again spun in and then out of the rim â€"â€" and American grabbed the latter carom with 57 seconds left. The Eagles would promptly turn the ball over, but Dunham was called for a push off a few seconds later that gave the ball to American with 46.2 seconds showing on the clock.

A timeout by American allowed them to advance the ball to in front of its bench, and once the ball was inbounded both teams chose to run the clock down. Maria Liddane kept the ball in her hands well above the top of the key until she moved inside of the three-point line and attempted a 17-foot shot that banked in with 17.0 seconds left to make the score 47-42.

This time Navy called timeout to advance the ball and once play started it hurriedly went into the hands of Condie who drilled a three-point shot with 7.2 seconds remaining that cut the margin down to 47-45. The Mids committed a foul before the ball could be inbounded and time could run off. The infraction sent Emily Kinneston to the free throw line where she made both attempts to make the score 49-45.

Another Navy timeout advanced the ball, and the end result was the same as the last time as Condie quickly received a pass and drained a three-point shot to close the margin down to 49-48 with 5.2 seconds still remaining. Navy again fouled before time could evaporate further, with this foul sending Liddane to the charity stripe. She would make the first attempt but miss the second. Swett grabbed the rebound and gave it to Condie who raced down the right side of the court. Her running, game-tying attempt from about 15 feet was wide of its mark as the clock expired.

"Obviously there at the end we had a different gear," said Pemper. "A couple of shots went down and gave us energy and got us back in the game. Credit to American again in that they are a really good free throw shooting team and they made some big free throws. But disappointing loss for sure. Really good American team and they deserve credit."

Navy outscored American 22-7 in the fourth quarter. The Mids made six three-point field goals (6-9, 66.7%) and eight shots from the floor in all (8-16, 50%) in the final 10 minutes of the game after making one triple (1-8, 12.5%) and 12 field goals (12-46, 26.1%) in the first three quarters.

"It was sparked by desperation," said Pemper of Navy's rally. "We just wanted to go to a different gear of intensity and trying to make plays. We hit some crazy shots. I don't know if we executed plays great, we just hit some crazy shots. We just got momentum, but couldn't get it tied."

Defensively, the Mids limited American to 2-9 (22.2%) shooting from the field (0-0 from three-point land) in the final period after the Eagles were 15-38 (39.5%) from the field and 7-13 (53.8%) from three-point range in the first 30 minutes of the game.

American was 9-10 (90%) from the foul line in the game while Navy was 1-2 (50%). The Mids attempted one foul shot in the first quarter and one in the fourth.

Condie paced the Mids with 15 points and Hannah Fenske (Jr., Albuquerque, N.M.) contributed 11 points and eight rebounds. While those two were a combined 11-27 (40.7%) from the field, the rest of the Navy team was 9-35 (25.7%).

Emily Koskimies was 5-6 from three-point range and 6-7 from the field in all to score an American-high 17 points.

Navy will hold its Senior Day ceremony prior to the start of Saturday's game against Bucknell.