ANNAPOLIS, Md. – In the final non-conference game of the 2018-19 schedule for the Navy women's basketball team, the Mids turned in a gutsy come-from-behind victory to knock off the Saint Joseph's Hawks, 49-48. After an extended break due to the holidays, the Mids (5-5) came out on Monday and opened the game at a 13-4 disadvantage after the first quarter before slowly scratching away at their deficit. Finally, in the fourth quarter, Navy was able to push ahead of the Hawks (4-9) on their way to the win in front of their home fans at Alumni Hall. 
 
Sophie Gatzounas (So., South Hadley, Mass.) led Navy's offensive effort with a game-high 13 points.
 
The game opened with Jennifer Coleman (Fr., Richmond, Va.) commanding a Midshipmen offense that led 4-0 through three possessions. The Mids' freshman guard made her first shot attempt before coming back down the court and feeding Laurel Jaunich (Jr., Charlotte, Vt.) for a fast break layup. From that point at 8:41, the visitors responded with a 13-0 run to close out the first quarter. The Hawks' defense forced the Mids into 14 straight misses to wrap up the period.
 
34 seconds into the second quarter, Sierra Swanda (So., Jacksonville, Fla.) put an end to the cold streak with a pair of converted free throws to make the game, 13-6. The contest stayed a 7-10-point margin until 4:07 when Morgan Taylor (Jr., Evans, Ga.) went two-for-two from the foul line and cut the Mids' deficit to 19-13. After a Saint Joseph's free throw, Cayla Hannibal (So., Virginia Beach, Va.) made it a four-point game as she swished a three-pointer from the right wing. A little over a minute later, Navy sank another trey, this time from Cailin Duffy (Fr., Westerville, Ohio) with 40 seconds remaining to make it 21-19 in favor of the visitors. In their final possession of the half, the Hawks made a layup with four seconds left to send the game into the locker room at 23-19. Navy's comeback was helped by the Mids shooting 40.0 percent (4-10) in the quarter versus a 27.3 (3-11) mark for the Hawks. 
 
For the half, Saint Joseph's was outshooting Navy, 33.3 (8-24) to 22.2 (6-27). Seven of the 11 Midshipmen to playing during the opening 20 minutes recorded points with Taylor posting a team-high of four.
 
The game was close for the majority of the third quarter as Saint Joseph's stretched its lead to seven points (27-20) at 7:33 before Navy fired back with a 5-0 run with a pair of Bianca Roach (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.) free throws capping the run at 3:53. With the game tightened to 27-25, the Hawk's Nailah Delinois put an end to the streak with a three-point basket at 3:38. Down the stretch three points by Gatzounas helped the Mids go into the final quarter break trailing by just three points at 33-30. Seven of Navy's 11 points came from the charity stripe as the team shot 7-of-11.
 
Three straight made field goals by the Mids from 8:56 to 7:40 enabled Navy to retake the lead 36-33 over Saint Joseph's. Gatzounas made the first shot for the Mids before Coleman went back-to-back at 8:16 and 7:40. Over the next five minutes of play, Navy's lead bounded from between one and three points as the teams traded layups extensively. St. Joe's finally broke the streak of alternating baskets when Kristalyn Baisden made a three-pointer at 2:02 to knot the game at 44-44. After a pair of made free throws at 1:31 put the Hawks back ahead, 46-44, Gatzounas deposited her first trey of the game at 1:10 to make it 47-46. With 13 seconds left on the clock, Mary Kate Ulasewicz (Jr., Doylestown, Pa.) calmly made two free throws to increase the Mids' lead to three points. Baisden made two of three foul shots with six seconds remaining to close the game to its final one-point margin, 49-48.
 
"We got a few good looks in a certain zone offense," said head coach Stefanie Pemper of the team's play in the second half. "It's a real simple offense. We get zoned so much, it'll be interesting moving forward if we can do a better job with that. We are so flawed, but we continue to fight. Look at Jenn, who was 1-9 in the first half with four turnovers, but comes back and makes big shots, gets big rebounds and sees the floor better than anyone on the team. She has a good attitude and confidence about her. 
 
"I thought MK was a key tonight. When she came in during the second half she knew the situation and she knew what she could bring to it. It was a lot from her confidence. The pull-up she made in the lane was big. 
 
"When shots don't fall for us, we tend to get a little internal; MK wasn't tonight and Jenn usually isn't so they played a big role in us coming back."
 
For the game, both teams shot 33.3 percent with identical 16-for-48 marks. The Mids held edges in both three-point shooting at 23.1 (3-13) to 21.4 (3-14) and foul shooting at 73.7 (14-19) to 61.9 (13-21). 
 
Navy held a substantial 39-29 advantage in rebounds. Coleman and Swanda led the way for the Mids as they corralled eight and six rebounds, respectively. 
 
"We definitely are scrappy and we showed that tonight winning the rebound battle by 10," remarked Pemper.
 
Defensively, Navy forced Saint Joseph's into 14 turnovers and were credited with 11 steals. Coleman led that metric, as well as she registered three thefts.
 
"We wanted to play a little more zone in the second half, but we were able to play man and Bianca's defending versus [Alyssa] Monaghan was huge," said Pemper. She did a really good job of limiting her to nine points." 
 
With Monday's victory, the Mids close out their non-conference slate with a 5-5 mark. Next up for Navy is a Thursday road contest at Loyola. The Mids and Greyhounds will face off in a 12 p.m. matchup at Reitz Arena.