Final Stats

BLACKSBURG, Va. â€"â€" Taylor Emery scored five points in the last 10 seconds of the game to rally Virginia Tech (19-13) past the Navy women's basketball team (25-8), 56-55, Friday night at Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, Va., in a first round WNIT game.

The Hokies, who defeated the Mids 75-64 in the second round of the 2017 WNIT, advance to the second round of the event where they will face George Mason. Virginia Tech improved to 9-3 in WNIT games played in Cassell Coliseum.

Navy quickly jumped out to a 9-0 lead within the first two minutes of the game. Virginia Tech closed to within 16-15, but the Mids ended the first quarter with a 24-17 lead. Navy extended that advantage out to 37-24 at halftime.

"We had a great game plan and the women just followed it," said Navy head coach Stefanie Pemper. "When we at Navy play these high major teams, our women just believe they can win. And they stepped up to that challenge and did it again tonight.

"Frankly, I felt we let Virginia Tech hang around in the first half."

The Hokies promptly opened the third quarter on a 10-2 run to close to within 39-34. Virginia Tech winnowed the margin down to four points at 43-39 only to see Taylor Dunham (Sr., Fort Belvoir, Va.) hit a late three to push the advantage back out to 46-39 by the end of the frame.

Virginia Tech kept chipping away at the margin and soon took a 49-48 lead, but Navy scored the next five points to regain a 53-49 advantage with 2:38 still to play. After not much scoring for either team, Dunham made one of two free throw attempts to make the score 54-51 with 11.2 seconds left.

Virginia Tech called timeout to advance the ball over halfcourt. Just after the inbounds pass, Emery promptly drained a three-point field goal to tie the game at 54 with 9.4 seconds remaining. Navy then called timeout to also advance the ball. Hannah Fenske (Sr., Albuquerque, N.M.) was fouled while driving to the basket with 5.4 seconds left and made one of two free throw attempts to give Navy a 55-54 lead.

After a Virginia Tech timeout to again advance the ball, Emery connected on a contested off-balanced 17-foot jumper from just inside the top of the key to give the Hokies a 56-55 lead with 1.1 seconds left. After the officials checked the game clock, the Mids â€"â€" who were out of timeouts ¬â€"â€" inbounded to Fenske whose shot from just over halfcourt hit the backboard before falling to the ground.

"I thought we were the better team, we wanted it more and we executed a great game plan," said Pemper. "Late in the game we really felt like we were the better team. Who would think that, against a team that just lost to Louisville by three points and is a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament."

Navy was held to just seven field goals and one triple in the second half. Conversely, Virginia Tech made six field goals in the third quarter and seven in the fourth. The Hokies also made five treys after halftime.

"I think they went inside on us (more in the second half) and tried to post us up," said Pemper. "There was a time we didn't have Hannah on the court because she would have been guarding a kid who was going to post her up. How crazy was it that we don't want Hannah on the floor?

"Nothing they (Virginia Tech) actually did … I don't know why, but they got lucky tonight and we didn't. We were really unlucky. None of us are going to feel it (the outcome) reflects on our seniors and the good season we had."

Additionally, Virginia Tech held a 27-13 cushion on the glass after halftime after Navy held a 19-17 edge on the boards in the first half.

Navy both committed five turnovers and forced 10 turnovers in each half, which led to the Mids holding a 22-7 advantage in points scored after turnovers for the game.

"Bianca Roach (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) did such a good job on their leading scorer and All-ACC player (Emery, 6-17 shooting)," said Pemper. "Our defense was terrific with forcing 20 turnovers. We have been a good front running team all year. It was so impressive we had that lead the whole first half, still had it at the end of the third, lost it, and fought our way back. That is not something this team has necessarily done this year. To get that lead back was neat to see we were able to achieve it even though it was a loss in the last game of the year."

Dunham paced the Mids with both 18 points and four steals. Fenske added seven points, five rebounds and five assists for Navy.

Virginia Tech's Alexis Jean matched Dunham's scoring production of 18 points while also snaring 14 rebounds. Emery ended the game with 16 points, 10 of which came in the second half.

Navy's season comes to a close with tonight's loss. The Mids set a school record for the most wins in a season, placed third in the Patriot League's regular season (13-5) and advanced to the title game of the league tournament for the second year in a row and fifth time in the last eight years. Additionally, tonight was Navy's third WNIT appearance in five years and sixth post-season trip in eight years. Dunham ends her career ranked second in Navy history with 241 career three-point field goals (record is 245), a Navy single season record 98 triples (also third in league history) and ranked 11th at Navy with 1,324 career points.

Fenske also caps her career with tonight's decision. She leaves Navy ranked ninth in school history with 323 career assists despite missing her entire sophomore year with a torn ACL.

"This game just had their (Dunham and Fenske) signature on it in terms of two women who love basketball, put in a ton of time, who want to be in those moments," said Pemper. "I think people do follow their confident lead. They did have some moments of missing shots but their body language never changed and people followed that. We wouldn't want anybody else on the free throw line late in the game like this. We're all sad because we have played a lot of high major teams close and we would have loved to have gotten one (win) for those two, these two smallish guards. We love them."