Jan. 17, 2018

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. ---- The Navy women's basketball team had built just enough of a first half lead to hang on for a 65-59 win over Lafayette Wednesday night at Alumni Hall. The win was the fourth in a row for the Mids and improved their record to 5-2 in league play and 15-3 overall, while the loss dropped the Leopards to 3-4 against league foes and 7-10 in all.

The Mids started the game with an 8-3 lead thanks to three-point field goals from Taylor Dunham (Sr., Fort Belvoir, Va.) and Hannah Fenske (Sr., Albuquerque, N.M.). The Navy lead was 11-6 when another Dunham triple started a 10-2 run that extended the margin out to 21-8.

Lafayette whittled the gap down to eight points at 25-17 early in the second quarter, but Navy answered by scoring each of the next seven and 13 of the next 15 points to build a 32-17 advantage midway through the frame.

Navy would eventually take a 40-21 lead into the locker room at halftime.

All eight Mids who took to the floor in the first half scored. Bianca Roach (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) led the Mids with eight points in the first 20 minutes of the game, while Dunham totaled six points, five rebounds and four assists.

Half of Navy's 40 points in the half came after Lafayette turnovers. And while the Mids forced 14 turnovers, they committed only eight of their own which led to just seven Lafayette points.

"Our defense was pretty good (in the first half)," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We had 14 steals and forced 23 turnovers."

Navy as a team totaled five three-point field goals in the first half and limited Lafayette to eight total field goals. The Mids also were 7-7 from the foul line in the half.

Things started to turn on both ends of the court in the third quarter. Navy was just 2-15 from the field in the frame, including a 0-6 mark from three-point range, while Lafayette was 6-14 shooting overall and 3-8 from beyond the arc. The 10-minute stanza ended with Navy's 19-point halftime lead sliced down to 10 at 46-36.

"Our shooting in the third quarter was not good, which was the opposite of Sunday's game (against Army when the Mids were 10-12 from the field in the third quarter)," said Pemper.

"We started off really well and made them turn the ball over," said Fenske. "(In the third quarter) we got some good steals but couldn't convert and we had some turnovers of our own that we would like to have back."

That margin was quickly cut down to three points at 46-43 when the Leopards opened the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run. Fenske stopped the bleeding as she drilled a triple to start a 10-2 run to give the Mids a 56-45 lead with just under six minutes left on the clock. Another Fenske trey ---- her fourth of the game ---- capped that spurt.

"I think both of us (Dunham) knew we needed to hit a shot just to get some momentum back," said Fenske. "It was nice that we could step up in the moment. They were two big shots that propelled us to the victory."

Lafayette had another surge left in it. The Leopards cut the margin down to six points at 58-52 and then had a three-point attempt with 1:40 left that they rebounded before throwing the ball out of bounds. A Navy turnover gave the ball back to Lafayette with just over one minute left, but the Leopards missed a field goal attempt with the errant carom going out of bounds with 53.0 seconds left. The officials could not ascertain which team last touched the ball, which led them to declaring a jump ball and giving it to the Mids.

Lafayette fouled Fenske twice to get over the limit, then fouled Fenske again to send her to the free throw line with 51.5 seconds left. She made both attempts, which led to Lafayette calling timeout. That was followed by Drew Freeland sinking a triple with 43.5 left on the clock, after which the Leopards again fouled Fenske. She made one attempt to push the score to 61-55 with 42.7 seconds remaining.

Lafayette missed a jumper on the other end of the floor and immediately fouled Kaila Clark (So., Hughesville, Md.) who had snared the rebound. She too was 1-2 from the stripe to make the score 62-55 with 38.4 seconds remaining. The Leopards quickly connected on their end of the court when Sammy Stipa made a baseline jumper to cut the margin to 62-57 with 28.4 seconds left. The Mids found success from the foul line over the scant seconds left to seal the victory.

Navy shot just 6-25 (24.0%) from the field in the second half while Lafayette made 12-31 (38.7%) attempts. Also, the Mids were 3-11 (27.3%) from three-point range after halftime while the Leopards were 6-15 (40%).

Both teams made 20 field goals and eight triples overall in the game, but Navy was 17-21 (81%) from the foul line and Lafayette was 11-14 (78.6%). The Mids also dished out 17 assists on their 20 made field goals.

"Our starters are playing pretty well," said Pemper. "We can have six or seven players score. I know all of our women believe they can score so they like to be unselfish.

"It was nice (the free throw success); the clock just kept running. I looked up and we were up six with three minutes to go, then with one minute left we were still up six. That clock worked out well for us. Seventeen for 21 from the free throw line is not what you see from Navy women's basketball ever. You don't see us take that many and you don't see us make that much."

Lafayette outrebounded Navy 24-17 in the second half and 38-34 in the game. Additionally, though Lafayette committed nine more turnovers in the second half (Navy had seven), that led to just three points for the Mids.

Fenske paced the Mids with 15 points, Dunham added 11 points, six assists and five rebounds, and Clark posted 10 points, eight rebounds, six steals and two blocks. The latter of her two blocks was the 100th of her 52-game career.

Navy will open back-to-back road games Saturday afternoon at Boston U.