COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Navy women's basketball team earned a hard-fought come-from-behind victory on the road versus service academy rival Air Force by a score of 54-47 on Friday. Playing in a pressure-filled environment at Clune Arena with bragging rights on the line, the Mids (4-3) overcame a 12-point halftime deficit with a stifling brand of defense and clutch shooting from the field in the second half. Navy showcased a well-rounded team effort as nine of the 10 Mids that played on Friday recorded points versus the Falcons (4-5) with none scoring more than 10.

Individually, Navy's offense was paced by Jennifer Coleman (Fr., Richmond, Va.), who scored 10 points and hauled in 13 rebounds in 28 minutes of action. The bench quartet of Kolbi Green (Fr., Woodstock, Md.), Mary Kate Ulasewicz (Jr., Doylestown, Pa.), Jasmine Bishop (So., Twinsburg, Ohio) and Sierra Swanda (So., Jacksonville, Fla.) all played key roles in the Mids' comeback and provided the team with the combination of 18 points, 13 rebounds and seven steals. Ulasewicz tied for the team lead with a +11 +/- rating over 22 minutes on the court.

"Our defense in the third quarter ended up being the difference in the game," remarked head coach Stefanie Pemper. "In a couple of our recent wins we created some easy baskets off of our defense and it was nice to see that happen again today, especially in the third. We shot the ball so much better in the second half. It got to that point in the game where we have some good confidence in that situation to pull it out. We came up with a lot of huge plays; M.K.'s basket to tie it at the end of third was huge; when we pulled ahead by six early in the fourth was huge. Six points was a somewhat comfortable lead in a game like today.

"Our halftime talk focused on staying level-headed. We had gotten into some foul trouble in the first half and we weren't shooting great. The thing that was nice was that as poor as we thought we played in the first half, we never got down huge. We kept looking up and we're only down eight; we're only down 11; we're only down nine; if we make a couple of baskets we cut it to six or seven points and now maybe they start hearing footsteps. Our zone defense was a huge difference maker for us in the game."

The contest opened with Air Force finding success from distance early as the host Falcons hit two of their first three three-point attempts. This helped Air Force jump out to a 10-2 by the 6:09 mark of the first quarter. A layup by Sophie Gatzounas (So., South Hadley, Mass.) and two made free throws by Bianca Roach (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.) tightened the contest to four at 10-6 in less than two minutes of game action. Both teams struggled after that point at 4:13 with Air Force converting just three foul shots and Navy going scoreless for the remainder of the period. 

Coming out of the first quarter break with the score 13-6. After the Falcons opened the second stanza with three points, some gritty work on the boards resulted in an offensive rebound and put back by Gatzounas. On the ensuing possession a fast break layup by Roach completed a mini 4-0 run by the Mids to make it 16-10. Air Force responded with four points of its own to extend its lead back out to 10 points, 20-10, at 6:19. Navy broke its 3:09 scoreless streak when Laurel Jaunich (Jr., Charlotte, Vt.) sank a mid-range jumper and the scoreboard showed 20-12. Ulasewicz made a technical foul free throw to cut the Mids' deficit to 20-13 before Air Force ran off seven unanswered points to make it 27-13 at the 1:52 mark. Four points by Green over the final 98 seconds of play helped Navy trail by 12 points going into the locker room at halftime down 29-17.

Tough, physical defense was the story in the first half as a quick look at the box scored showed neither team reaching the 30 percent mark in field goal shooting as the Falcons were shooting just 28 percent (9-32) to the Mids' 22 percent (7-32). Advantages in three-point shooting (3-0) and made free throws (8-3) were leading causes of the Falcons' 12-point margin. Both teams turned the ball over nine times in the opening 20 minutes.

After Air Force made the opening field goal of the first half to go up 14, Navy came back with six points in a matter of 48 seconds with Jaunich sinking two baskets and Roach laying up a fast break basket. With the Mids' shrinking the score to 31-23, the hosts immediately burned a timeout at 7:07 to stop the momentum. Trailing by 11, 34-23, at 5:23, Navy closed the quarter on a 14-3 run. Six Mids recorded points in this stretch. While Green netted a pair of baskets to lead the way, the most memorable play was a layup by Ulasewicz at the buzzer that bounded around the rim before dropping in as time expired.  For the third quarter, the Mids outscored the Falcons, 20-8 and forced six turnovers on their way to knotting at 37-37.

The first lead of the game for the Mids came 30 seconds into the fourth quarter when Coleman sank a jumper in the paint. Two more made field goals by Morgan Taylor (Jr., Evans, Ga.) helped the Mids go up 43-37 by the 6:59 mark. Invigorated by its team's success on offense, Navy's defense really turned up the intensity in fourth and didn't allow an Air Force field goal attempt for the first 3:56 of the quarter, the lack of field goals was directly correlated to six turnovers. The Falcons didn't go down without a fight though and responded with six unanswered points and tied the game at 43-43 with 5:17 left in regulation.

"Jennifer had a tough go of it early on, but she stayed with it and made some really big baskets late," said Pemper. "She didn't lose her confidence; that was really important."

Tied at 45-45, layups in consecutive possessions helped the Mids retake the lead at 49-45 with under two minutes to play. Swanda came up clutch in extending Navy's second possession with a physical offensive rebound leading to a basket by Gatzounas. Air Force shaved two final points off of its deficit with an Emily Conroe jumper with 56 seconds remaining. Leading 49-47, the Mids recorded the last five points of the game to win 54-47. Ulasewicz was key in salting away the victory as the junior was 3-4 from the line in the final 22 seconds.

For the game, Navy outshot Air Force, 35.4 percent (23-65) to 28.8 (15-52). The Falcons held advantages in three-point shooting, 21.4 (3-14) to 0.0 (0-7) and free throw shooting, 70.0 (14-20) to 57.1 (8-14). A statistically oddity, the Mids' hadn't been shutout in the three-point category in over eight years. On November 19, 2010, Navy was 0-12 from three-point range in a 54-41 loss versus Villanova in the first game of the 2010 Navy Classic. Since that date, Navy had gone 260 consecutive games with at least one successful trey.

The Falcons outrebounded the Mids, 44 to 39. Coleman led all players with 13 rebounds. 

The tipping point in the final stats came in the turnover category where Navy forced Air Force into 24 errors. The Mids were credited with 13 steals. Coming off the bench, Green recorded a game-high four thefts. Gatzounas was one behind her with three steals.

In the second half, Navy shot 48.5 percent (16-33), including 53.8 percent (7-13) in the fourth quarter. The Mids forced the Falcons into 15 turnovers.

"Sending them to the line 20 times, was a few more than we would have liked, but they normally average, 27 or 28 per a game; I thought that was important." said Pemper. "We wanted to have less than 18 turnovers and we kept it to 16 so that was good. We had some huge offensive rebounds that resulted in key plays for us late in the game. Sierra had one, Jasmine another. 

"I told the team in the locker room, that it's neat to get a win and the stat sheet doesn't show it, but I thought M.K. was huge. She was the key to this win. Her poise and confidence was really huge. In a game like today, confidence makes such a difference."

Navy will continue action on the road with a Sunday matchup at Colorado. The Mids and Buffaloes will matchup at 3:00 PM ET (1:00 PM local) in Boulder.