WEST POINT, N.Y. – In a game with large momentum swings throughout, the Navy women's basketball team's final rally came up just short as Army held on for a 55-52 victory on Saturday. In the first leg of the 2019 Army-Navy women's basketball series at Army's Christl Arena, the Midshipmen (8-8, 3-3 PL) jumped out to a 21-14 lead in the first quarter over the Black Knights (8-9, 3-3 PL) before the hosts slowly overtook them by the end of third. The back-and-forth action continued into the final moments as the Mids trailed by 11 points with 1:26 in regulation before closing with an 8-0 run.
 
Individually, Kolbi Green (Fr., Baltimore, Md.), Bianca Roach (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.) and Jasmine Bishop (So., Twinsburg, Ohio) combined to score 33 of Navy's 52 points. Green tallied a team-high 13 points. Bishop came in clutch for the Mids in the second half as the sophomore forward tallied eight points on four-of-four shooting in 13 minutes of action.
 
"A lot of credit goes out to Army," remarked head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We got out to a little bit of a lead and they stayed tough and got some contributions from their bench. They certainly had the momentum going into the second half. We turned it over a little too much. Shooting was a big difference in the outcome of the game.
 
"We did a lot of prep for how they play defense with their zone. We just weren't always in sync today. This is the first game of two against them. We're in league play and we'll have big games that we have focus on moving forward. We have to learn from today. That's been the story of our season; trying to learn from every game, whether we win or loss. This one definitely hurts because it's our rival."
 
After a slow start to the game in which Navy missed its first four shots, Green got the Mids onto the scoreboard at 8:10 with a three-pointer from the top of the key. After Army went right down the court and sank a three-pointer of its own, Navy made its second in a row as Roach made a trey from the left wing. With the score 6-5 in their favor, Jennifer Coleman (Fr., Richmond, Va.) extended the Mids' lead to three points with a layup at 6:38. Navy turned defense into offense when Green intercepted a pass and hit Laurel Jaunich (Jr., Charlotte, Vt.) streaking out on a fast-break for an uncontested layup. The Mids' success from distance continued at 3:52 when Green hit another three-pointer, this time from right corner to make it 13-7. Over the next two minutes both teams got out and found success on the offensive end as the game quickly progressed to 19-14, Navy. A pair of free throws by Coleman at 0:40 gave the Mids' their largest lead of the period of seven.
 
Coming out in the second quarter with the score 21-14, neither team found much traction on offense early on as Army hit a jumper at 8:09 and Navy, a Green three-pointer at 6:53. That trey was the third of the game for Green. The freshmen backcourt struck again two minutes later at 4:50 when Coleman found the bottom of the basket with a lengthy three-point field goal to make it 27-18. Following the media timeout, Army ran off a brief 4-0 run to slightly cut into Navy's lead. Bishop put an end to that run with layup at 2:45. With the score 29-22 for the Mids, the Black Knights closed the quarter with the last five points to send the game into halftime at 29-27.
 
At the intermission, Navy held slight advantages in field goal shooting at 37.9 percent (11-29) to 34.4 (11-32) and in three-point shooting at 35.7 percent (5-14) to 33.3 (3-9). Green and Coleman combined for 20 of the Mids' 29 points as Green tallied 11 points with nine coming from Coleman.
 
"It was a challenge in the first half when #31 [Alisa Fallon] came in and got four o-boards; all season she had 10 o-boards," said Pemper. "I've been saying we're unpredictable with our inexperience, but so are they. #13 [Lindsay Scamman] came in; we had a feeling that she was capable of making a difference. Any time a player comes off the bench or a freshman plays fearless and has some success. It was a big morale boost to their team."
 
Similar to the second quarter, both Army and Navy struggled to break through on the scoreboard as 3:09 expired before either team made a field goal in the third quarter. The Mids' only points during this stretch were two free throws by Green, while the Black Knights countered with just a Lindsey Scamman layup. With the score 31-29 in favor of Navy, the visitors ran off four unanswered points that quickly drew a 5-0 response by Army. Holding just a one-point lead, 35-34, Roach tallied three points on her own as she made a layup and converted the and-one to make it 38-34 at 4:00. The Black Knights continued their comeback and took the lead, 40-38 before the conclusion of the third quarter. The nine points by the Mids were a season-low for any third quarter.
 
Navy's cold stretch on offense carried over into the fourth quarter as the team scored just two points in the first 6:36 of action. Army used this to its advantage and slowly built out a 10-point lead of 50-40 by 3:34. Faced with their largest deficit of the game, the Mids used four points over two possessions by Bishop to get right back into it at 50-44. Following a 5-0 run by the Black Knights between 2:14 and 1:26, the Mids cut it back to six points with a Bishop layup and Morgan Taylor (Jr., Evans, Ga.) three-pointer within nine seconds of each other at 1:07 and 0:56. After an Army turnover, Taylor sunk another three at 0:45 to make it just a three-point game at 55-52. Navy forced another Army turnover with 15 seconds remaining to get the ball back. The Mids had two final looks at the basket in search of the game-tying three-pointer, but saw both attempts bounce off the rim.
 
"When you have some different people on the floor it can take some time to establish chemistry," said Pemper about the Mids' lineup in the second half. "I thought there were times that we wanted to move the ball a little smoother and could've gotten better shots; I felt that finally happened late. I thought the shot that Jasmine made came from a nice, smooth, extra pass. The power of the three-ball, Morgan came in and hit it. Things got a little tight and then we made that stop. I'm happy that we got two pretty good looks at the end to tie it."
 
In the 55-52 victory for Army, the Black Knights outshot the Mids, 41.2 percent (21-51) to 33.3 from the field and 38.5 percent (5-13) to 26.9 (7-26) from three-point range. Navy held a slight 58.3 percent (7-12) to 50.0 (8-16) margin in free throw shooting.
 
Army out-rebounded, 40-35, though the Mids collected 15 offensive rebounds versus 14 for the Black Knights. Coleman and Sierra Swanda (So., Jacksonville, Fla.) each brought in five total boards.
 
Navy forced Army into 18 turnovers on 10 steals. Green (3), Coleman (2), Roach (2) and Swanda (2) all recorded multiple steals.
 
"We need to continue to get better at finishing around the rim," remarked Pemper. "Our free throw shooting has gotten a little bit better as of late. Today it let us down some; we had a few trips where we missed both. That's some adversity that our poise has to overcome in this atmosphere. Today's game will make us better. This was the most intense atmosphere that we've played in this year. The same will be true when we play again in Annapolis."
 
The Mids and Black Knights will meet again with the 2019 women's basketball star on the line in Annapolis on Feb. 16.
 
Next up for Navy is a Wednesday road matchup at Lafayette. The action between the Mids and Leopards is set for 11 a.m. in Easton, Pa.