ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Sitting at 3-3 through six games of Patriot League play, the Navy women's basketball team looks to move above the .500 mark in conference on Wednesday with a road matchup versus Lafayette College. Winners of nine straight contests over the Leopards (6-11, 1-5 PL) dating back to 2014, the Mids (8-8, 3-3 PL) are on the hunt for its 10th consecutive victory in the series. The two teams will face off in a "Youth Day" event that tips off at 11 a.m. at the Kirby Sports Center.

Wednesday's game will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network. Live stats will be available from Lafayette.

Last Time Out
In a game with large momentum swings throughout, Navy'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.

After an offensive start to the game in which the teams combined for 35 points in the first quarter, 21-14 in favor of Navy, neither team found much traction on offense early on in the second quarter as Army hit a jumper at 8:09 and Navy, a Kolbi 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 Jennifer 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. Jasmine 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.

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. 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, Bianca 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. 

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 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.

Individually, Green, Roach and Bishop 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.

Navy versus Lafayette
The Mids and Leopards have met 72 times in a series that began on Feb. 16, 1980  ... All-time, Navy and Lafayette, 51-21 with a 19-13 advantage in games played in Easton... The Mids have won seven straight games at the Kirby Sports Center starting in 2012 ... In her 11 seasons as head coach Stefanie Pemper is 19-4 versus Lafayette... Last season marked the 15th time in series history that the Mids had swept the regular season, 2-0 over the Leopards ... Over the last ten matchups, Navy is 9-1 and currently holds a nine-game winning streak; the Mids last loss to the Leopards was Feb. 1, 2014.
     Last 5 Games
    Feb. 14, 2018 (A): Navy 59 - Lafayette 43
    Jan. 17, 2018 (H): Navy 65 - Lafayette 59
    March 6, 2017 (H): Navy 53 - Lafayette 37 *Patriot League Quarterfinals 
    Feb. 11, 2017 (A): Navy 68 - Lafayette 65
    Jan. 14, 2017 (H): Navy 76 - Lafayette 41

2017-18 Series Recap
Navy and Lafayette played twice last year during the regular season with the Mids securing a pair of conference victories over the Leopards ... The 2017-18 series kicked off in Annapolis on Jan. 17 and saw Navy come out on top, 65-59. Leading the entire game and by 19 points at the half, 40-21, Lafayette rallied late to close the game its final six-point margin ... Four weeks later on Feb. 14 in Easton, Pa., the Mids controlled the majority of the action once again and expanded their lead out exponentially in the third quarter with a 22-11 margin. The visitors eventually won by 16, 59-43 ... Looking at the cumulative statistics, Navy held advantages in a variety of categories including scoring (62.0 - 51.0 ppg), field goal percentage (35.3% - 33.%), free throw shooting (77.4% - 63.3%) and assists (15.0-11.5 apg) ... Of the 80 total minutes of action, Navy led for 72:06 minutes versus 5:46 for Lafayette ... Large advantages in the first and second quarters helped the Mids in the 2017-18 series as they outscored the Leopards, 34-22 in the first and 34-20 in the second.

Comparing the Teams