Box Score

ANNAPOLIS, Md. â€"â€" The Navy women's basketball team led American for all but the opening minute of the game, but the Mids never enjoyed any kind of comfortable cushion over the Eagles until the closing minutes of a 60-44 victory Wednesday night at Alumni Hall.

Navy, which was picked to place sixth in the league at the start of this year, ends the regular season alone in second place in the final standings with a 14-4 record as part of an overall record of 21-8. The lone years the Mids have finished as high as second place in their 26 years in the league were 1997 (second), 1998 (tie first), 2011 (tie first), 2013 (tie first) and 2014 (first).

American, which defeated Navy 50-48 one week ago in Washington, D.C., ends the regular season in a tie for fourth place with a 11-7 league mark and a 14-15 record in all.

The Mids followed last week's loss to the Eagles with a home loss on Senior Night to first-place Bucknell. With tonight's win, the Mids improved to 12-1 in games when facing a three-game losing streak in league play under head coach Stefanie Pemper.

"What a hard-fought game," said the ninth-year head coach Pemper. "Again, I am so impressed with American, their toughness, (both) physical and mental toughness. Really happy for our women. (We) made plays down the stretch. They (American) started to miss some shots (late in the game). We talked about rebounding; loose balls and rebounding. Our guards had to get in there to make a difference."

"(Playing well and getting the win) was our focus coming into tonight," said Sarita Condie (Sr., Lovelock, Nev.). "We had two really tough losses and lost the chance to win the regular season championship to Bucknell. Our goal was to not sulk or feel sorry for ourselves, but really bounce back knowing we still had a game to play heading into tournament play. We fought really hard; American fought really hard. It was four really good quarters of basketball."

Navy jumped out to an 8-0 lead at the very start of tonight's game. Kaila Clark (Fr., Hughesville, Md.) entered the game with one made three-point field goal on three attempts this season, but she was 2-2 from beyond the arc in the game-opening run by the Mids. She promptly added another field goal as the lead grew to 12-0 less than four minutes into the evening. American was able to close the margin down to as few as four points, but Condie connected on first a layup and then a three-point shot in the last 35 seconds of the quarter to boost Navy back out to an 18-9 lead at the end of the frame.

The teams traded baskets for most of the second quarter as the lead swayed between four and nine points until a 5-0 run in the final few minutes of the stanza by the Eagles winnowed the Navy advantage down to 27-26 at intermission.

Navy averaged 12.9 turnovers a game through its first 17 games of the league season and ranks among the nation's leaders in fewest turnovers, but committed 11 turnovers in the first half while forcing eight. Additionally, American's bench outscored Navy's reserves 17-0 in the first half.

The Mids continued to hold a precarious lead for the entire third quarter as it was as low as one point and as high as six. Navy would take a 43-39 lead into the final frame.

After scoring the last two points of the third quarter on separate trips to the foul line, Navy scored the opening four points of the fourth quarter to take a 47-39 lead. A field goal by American ended the 6-0 run, but that was followed by Navy tallying the next nine points to build a 56-41 lead with 3:45 left on the clock. The Eagles made a three-point field goal with 3:28 remaining, but those would be the last three of the five points tallied by them in the fourth quarter. A pair of field goals by Justice Swett (Sr., Nashville, Tenn.) followed the American triple to account for the last points of the night.

Navy shot 61.5 percent (8-13) from the field in the last quarter, while holding American to just 13.3 percent (2-15) shooting. The Mids on the night shot 44.9 percent from the floor, including 35.3 percent (6-17) from three-point land, while the Eagles made 31 percent of their field goal attempts which included a 25-percent (4-16) night from three-point range. Aiding Navy's scoring was it making 10-14 (71.4%) foul shots. Conversely, American was 4-7 (57.1%) from the charity stripe.

Navy won the battle of the boards in the game, 39-31, and turned the ball over just seven times in the second half while forcing eight turnovers.

One week ago, American outshot the Mids 36.2%-32.3% from the field, made 9-10 foul shots to Navy's 1-2 effort from the foul line and the Eagles held a 40-33 edge on the glass.

Also tonight, Navy's bench outscored American's 10-7 in the final 20 minutes of the game.

Condie paced Navy's scoring efforts with 17 points, while also sharing the rebounding lead with a career-high tying eight caroms. Taylor Dunham (Jr., Fort Belvoir, Va.) joined Condie in double figures with 11 points, and Swett had a solid all-around night with eight points, eight rebounds and four steals. Also playing well for the Mids were Hannah Fenske (Jr., Albuquerque, N.M.) with six points, four assists and one turnover, and Ashanti Kennedy (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.) with six points and seven rebounds.

"Taylor made some really nice plays, Justice made some really nice plays, Ashanti was just really great," said Pemper. "When you get to these games and the tournament, people have to play well. You can't just rely on Sarita. We've been talking about that (having a well-rounded effort). We have to have multiple people step up. At halftime we didn't have anyone off the bench score. That can't be our identity."

Lauren Crisler scored 10 points to lead American's offense.

The Mids will open the Patriot League Tournament Monday night in the quarterfinal round against the winner of Saturday's No. 10 Lafayette at No. 7 Holy Cross first round game. Monday's game between the Mids and either the Crusaders or Leopards will start at 7 p.m. in Alumni Hall. Tickets are now on sale for the game through the Navy Ticket Office at either 1-800-US4-NAVY or by visiting the TICKETS tab in the masthead on NavySports.com.

"I'm really excited (about the tournament)," said Condie. "It is a great team to be with. I think we are really excited to continue the streak we have been on. It has already been a really special season, but I am really looking forward to how we compete in tournament play."

Final Patriot League Standings
1. 16-2 Bucknell
2. 14-4 Navy
3. 12-6 Army West Point
T4. 11-7 American
T4. 11-7 Boston U.
6. 7-11 Colgate
T7. 6-12 Holy Cross
T7. 6-12 Loyola
9. 5-13 Lehigh
10. 2-16 Lafayette

Patriot League Tournament Schedule
First Round â€" March 4
#9 Lehigh at #8 Loyola
#10 Lafayette at #7 Holy Cross

Quarterfinal â€" March 6
#9 Lehigh / #8 Loyola at #1 Bucknell
#5 Boston U. at #4 American
#6 Colgate at #3 Army West Point
#10 Lafayette / #7 Holy Cross at #2 Navy

Semifinals â€" March 10
At highest seed remaining in the tournament

Final â€" March 12
At semifinal site