PORTLAND, Maine – In the final game of a two-game road trip through Upper New England, the Navy women's basketball team dropped a hard fought 46-41 decision versus Maine at the Portland Expo Center on Sunday afternoon. The Mids' defensive effort was strong throughout as they held the Black Bears to 30.4 percent shooting and recorded 12 steals for the afternoon. Sunday's five-point win improved Maine's record to 2-3 on the young season, while Navy's mark also went to 2-3 through five games.
 
Morgan Taylor (Sr., Evans, Ga.) led the Mids' list individual standouts on Sunday as she notched her first double-double of the 2019-20 season with a team-high 14 points and 10 rebounds. Additionally, she collected five steals over her 36 minutes on the floor. A pair of New England natives Laurel Jaunich (Sr., Charlotte, Vt.) and Sophie Gatzounas (Jr., South Hadley, Mass.) combined for 15 points with eight coming for Jaunich and seven for Gatzounas.
 
"We missed good shots, I feel like that was the difficulty for us today," remarked head coach Stefanie Pemper. "Maine is a really tough team. They've won a couple of America East championships in-a-row. They have that belief late in games and players that have made some of those plays late to win games. Certainly Millan and Saar, as well as some of their role player are experienced in those key moments.
 
"Morgan put together a good two-game road trip for us. As a senior with experience, she competed throughout and made plays on both ends. Kolbi Green was good today. She is one of our better defensive players and did some good things offensively in the way she set people up."
 
Gatzounas got the Mids onto the scoreboard first with a three-pointer from the top of the arch at 8:49. Playing in front of a large contingent of friends and family, Montana Braxton (Sr., Cape Elizabeth, Maine) quickly put aside any potential jitters with a smooth jumpshot off a Green drive and kick out less than a minute later to put Navy up 5-0. Over the next five minutes, Maine fought its way back into the game with seven of the next 11 points. With the score, 9-7 in favor of the Mids at 2:19, the Black Bears' Blanca Millan put her squad ahead for the first time in the game with a three-pointer from the wing. Down the stretch, Navy went back ahead as Taylor netted a pair of baskets to put the Mids up 13-12 at the first quarter break. A leading factor in Navy's lead was its defense holding Maine to just 28.8 percent (4-14) shooting from the field over the opening 10 minutes of play.
 
The first four-plus minutes of the second quarter was nearly even as Maine scored five points and Navy scored four to make it a 17-17 game before Millan found room from the corner for another three-pointer at 5:10. That trey by Millan gave her 18 of Maine's first 20 points of the contest. Trailing 20-17, Green swooped to the basket at 3:58 to cut the Mids' deficit to one point. After the Black Bears went on a brief 5-0 run to take their then-largest lead of that game of six at 25-19, Green put an end to that run with layup at 0:56. Another Millan basket before the expiration of the second quarter sent the teams into the locker room with score, Maine 27 and Navy 21.
 
At the break, Maine was barely outshooting Navy, 32.1 percent (9-28) to 31.3 (10-32), though the Black Bears connected on three more three-point shots (4-1) and five more free throws (5-0) than the Mids.
 
Navy's comeback attempt started immediately as the visitors scored the first four points of the second half, all courtesy of Taylor over the first 2:27 of play. With the score 27-25, Maine responded with four points of its own to stretch its lead back out to six by the 3:38 mark of the quarter. The back-and-forth action continued with Maine going up seven, 34-27, just to see Navy come right back with a Taylor free throw and a Jennifer Coleman (So., Richmond, Va.) jumper at 1:04. Two successful Black Bear free throws over the final 64 seconds closed the scoring for the quarter as both teams finished with nine points to make it a 36-30 contest.
 
After the teams traded baskets to start the fourth quarter, Maine began to put distance between itself and Navy with its first double-digit point lead of the game, 42-32 as a result of a Maeve Carroll jumper at 6:17. The Mids were held back by a rough shooting start to the period as they hit just one of their first seven shots over a span of 5:40. Navy's eighth attempt of the quarter went down as Green made a steal and raced down the court for the layup at 4:20. Another Midshipmen basket, this time by Taylor at 3:22 helped cut the team's deficit to six points at 42-36. After the teams exchanged made field goals to make it a 44-38 contest, Green found Taylor wide open on the wing for a three-pointer at 1:45. With the score 44-41, Maine shut out Navy over its final four possessions, while adding a two-point insurance basket to close the game with a final score of 46-41.
 
For the game, Navy outshot Maine by a minute 31.0 percent (18-58) to 30.4 percent (17-56) margin. Neither team had tremendous success from either three-point range or the foul line, but the Black Bears had more quantity as they made five three-pointers (5-34) for a 14.7 percent mark versus two for the Mids (2-9), a 22.2 percent mark. At the charity stripe, Maine shot 58.3 percent (7-12), while Navy shot 50.0 percent (3-6).
 
Maine won the rebounding battle, 45-38 with a 16-12 advantage in offensive boards. The Black Bears had a pair of players with double-digit rebounding numbers. Taylor was the top rebounder for Navy with a season-high 10 caroms.
 
Defensively, Navy turned Maine over 15 times courtesy of 12 steals. Taylor and Green recorded nine of those thefts with five for Taylor and four for her backcourt mate Green. Taylor tied her career-high with five steals, that she initially set on Jan. 8, 2018 versus Colgate.
 
"We need to work on finding a consistent rotation," said Pemper. "We need to finish plays better, whether it's getting that defensive rebound or making that big shot. We need to execute better at times. We're still trying to find that right rotation. When we eventually find that mix, we should execute a little bit better. We're just a little inexperienced right now and we're trying to fight our way through that. This was a tough road trip.
 
"We have to turn our disappointment around and start looking ahead to Air Force on Wednesday. Credit to Maine for finding a way to win. They missed so many threes. This isn't their normal arena and they aren't used to playing here. You just saw some maturity out of them today. We're going to need to bring some of that maturity to the arena for the Air Force game."
 
Navy will continue its busy stretch of games with a contest on Wednesday at home versus Air Force. The first home game for the Mids since Nov. 5 will tip off at 5 p.m. at Alumni Hall.