ANNAPOLIS, Md. – It was home cooking once again for the Navy women's basketball team as the Mids closed out their three-game homestand this week with a 61-46 victory over La Salle on Sunday. After collecting wins versus Air Force and Kennesaw State earlier in this holiday week, the Mids (5-3) capped the 2019 Navy Classic with a championship game triumph over a tough La Salle (6-2) club that boasted a strong inside-outside game.
 
For the third straight contest, the Mids had three players record double-digit scoring figures led by Sophie Gatzounas' (Jr., South Hadley, Mass.) game-high 15 points. Morgan Taylor (Sr., Evans, Ga.) and Mary Kate Ulasewicz (Sr., Doylestown, Md.) aided Navy's effort with point totals of 14 and 10, respectively. Additionally, Gatzounas tallied her second double-double of the year with 10 rebounds against the Explorers.
 
"I'm so happy with how we competed and played today," remarked head coach Stefanie Pemper. "Things weren't easy for us, but we just kept fighting. Towards the end they scored seven straight points, but we were prepared and called on our depth. We immediately brought in Morgan, M.K. and Sophie totally fresh and they put an end to La Salle's run, it was nice to have depth. I was confident in our free throw shooting and our ability to execute and defend down the stretch.
 
"A 15-point win is solid. It was great to get a win and to play well on our home court. 22 offensive rebounds and 18 assists, those are great numbers. We didn't shoot the three-ball all that well today, but found a way to win. La Salle is a team that came in 6-1. You could see their game plan was to go inside against us, but they also had good outside shooters, we were expecting somewhat of a Vermont-type of game. We lost at Vermont last weekend, but for us to earn this win, it feels great."
 
In a game of runs, both teams came out of the gate on Sunday with a host of offensive maladies to start. With the score 3-0 in favor of Navy over four minutes into the contest, Gatzounas put the Mids' offense on her back and netted four points in short order to up the score to 7-0 with all seven points posted by the junior forward. La Salle finally broke through onto the scoreboard in the seventh minute of play with a Shalina Miller layup at 3:39. Two baskets within 18 seconds of each other quickly helped Navy extend its lead out to nine points, 11-2 by the 3:08 mark of the first quarter. The visitors from Philadelphia found their shot late in the period and closed the stanza on a 7-0 run to make it 11-9 at the first quarter break.
 
La Salle added three more points to that run in the beginning of the second quarter when Kayla Spruill sank a trey from the top of the key 37 seconds into the period. Down 12-11, the Mids immediately had a rebuttal with six unanswered points, single baskets by Ulasewicz, Taylor and Gatzounas. With the score 17-12 for Navy at 7:16, La Salle swung the momentum pendulum back in its favor with a 7-0 run over the next 1:29 of play. The game stay in the one-possession neighborhood for the ensuing three-plus minutes as Navy held just a 25-24 lead with 2:58 remaining in the second quarter. Unwilling to settle for a one-point advantage going into the locker room at halftime, the Mids concluded the first half on a 7-0 run with a Kolbi Green (So., Baltimore, Md.) three-pointer highlighting this span of play.
 
Coming out for the second half up 32-24, Navy took its first double-digit point lead (36-26) by the 7:34 mark when Gatzounas found Laurel Jaunich (Sr., Charlotte, Vt.) for a mid-range jumper. The teams traded baskets for the majority of the next three-plus minutes, though back-to-back successful field goals by Ulasewicz and Taylor helped the Mids grow their lead to a then- game-high 12 points at 3:43, 42-30. Jennifer Coleman (So., Richmond, Va.) capped the quarter of action for Navy as she hit a buzzer-beating fadeaway three-pointer to send the game into the fourth quarter with the score 47-36.
 
That trey invigorated her teammates and the Mids started the final period of play in fast form with eight unanswered points. Jasmine Bishop (Jr., Twinsburg, Ohio) was around most of the offense's success during this run with two baskets and an assist on a third. Leading 55-36, Navy continued thwarting La Salle's offense as the Explorers went without a point until the clock showed 3:57 left to play. That 6:20 dry spell for La Salle dating back to the third quarter left the visitors with too big of a hole to dig out of though the tried vigorously to do so. A brief 8-0 run cut Navy's advantage down to 11 points, but six of eight shooting down the stretch at the foul line helped the Mids record a comfortable 15-point victory, 61-46 over the Explorers.
 
For the game, Navy outshot La Salle, 36.9 percent (24-65) to 34.0 (17-50) from the field and 76.9 percent (10-13) to 55.6 percent (5-9) in free throw attempts. The Explorers held the edge in three-point shooting, 31.8 percent (7-22) to 21.4 percent (3-14).
 
The Mids turned in a substantial +13 advantage on the glass as they out-rebounded the Explorers, 45-32 on Sunday. Navy's total was bolstered by 22 offensive rebounds versus only 21 defensive rebounds by La Salle. Gatzounas led the way with 10 total rebounds, six of the offensive variety and four of the defensive. Taylor and Ulasewicz rounded out their strong weekend on the glass with totals of six and five rebounds, respectively.
 
Ulasewicz also left her mark as the game's leader in assists with five of the team's 18 combined helpers. In total, six different Mids had multiple assists on Sunday.
 
Defensively, Navy turned La Salle over 22 times on the strength of 13 steals. Green and Coleman each recorded three thefts to lead Navy.
 
Navy's 61-46 victory closed out the two-day 2019 Navy Classic that saw the Mids come away with the championship. Both La Salle and Kennesaw State went 1-1 at the event as the Owls came away with a 59-44 win over UMBC earlier in the day during the consolation game.
 
A five-player All-Navy Classic Team was named at the end of the day with Sophie Gatzounas earning top-billing as the Tournament MVP (16.5 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 61.9% FG percentage, 66.7 3PT percentage). She was joined on the team by her fellow Midshipmen Mary Kate Ulasewicz (13.5 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 5.5 APG). From La Salle, Kayla Spruill was named to the team. Kennesaw State's Amani Johnson and UMBC's Jen Gast rounded out the list of honorees.
 
"We really enjoy playing in our home tournament," said Pemper. "We have so many friends and family here during the holiday, it's great. Having bracketed winner's and consolation games this year was cool too, we don't always do that. This weekend was big for us. La Salle is a 6-1 team that has some good wins so far this year. I'm really happy and not just with the outcome, but with how we played."
 
Navy will close out its busy six-game in 12-day stretch of action with a road matchup on Wednesday at Fairfield University. Tip-off between the Mids and Stags is set for 6 p.m. in Fairfield, Conn.