PHILADELPHIA – The Navy women's basketball team wrapped up the non-conference portion of its 2019-20 schedule on Monday night with a 49-40 road loss at Saint Joseph's University. Playing its first game in a busy three-game week, the Mids (5-6) were unable to overcome a slow start and subsequently trailed for the majority of the contest versus the Hawks (6-6) at Hagan Arena.
 
The senior pairing of Morgan Taylor (Evans, Ga.) and Montana Braxton (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) led Navy on Monday with a combined 19 points and 11 rebounds. Taylor went for 11 and seven, while Braxton tallied a career-high eight points with four boards. Braxton added a team-high three steals on defense.
 
"Their defense was tough all night, but so was ours" remarked head coach Stefanie Pemper. "They scored 26 of their points in the paint and that was a reflection on the struggles of our post defense. We need to improve that. Our women battled. St Joe's has beaten strong programs like American, Harvard, and Columbia this year by an average of 20 points per game. That's a quality opponent that we held to just 49 points.
 
"We scrimmaged every day we were on the Yard during this holiday break, which was different from our exam break leading into the George Mason game. There were little differences here and there in our execution all night. Knowing what we were running and running it right. Our turnovers weren't terrible, we started out with six in the first quarter and finished with 14. We had so many offensive rebounds, but weren't able to capitalize on them. Their shot-blocking affected us a little bit."
 
The game opened at a frenetic pace with both teams buzzing on defense and crashing the boards. Over the first six and a half minutes, the teams combined for seven turnovers and 13 rebounds. Navy was especially active on the glass with 10 rebounds, including four by Taylor. With all of this action, the score was close throughout and Saint Joseph's held a slight 9-8 lead at this time of play. The Mids received its early offense from the senior trio of Mary Kate Ulasewicz (Sr., Doylestown, Pa.), Taylor and Braxton. Both Ulasewicz and Taylor had three points. Unfortunately for the Mids they were stuck on that eight-point mark for the final 4:33 of the quarter, though its defense did a good job of limiting the Hawks' chances and the period concluded with the score 12-8 in favor of the hosts.
 
Taylor put an end to Navy's scoreless drought with a pull-up jumper 1:31 into the second quarter to shave Saint Joe's lead to two points. The Hawks responded with a 7-0 run over the next 4:43 to make it a 19-10 game. Braxton netted her third and fourth points of the game with jumper at 3:29. An offensive rebound by Maggie Moore (Fr., Ruffs Dale, Pa.) and a quick pass out to Mimi Schrader (Fr., Plymouth, Minn.) in the corner at 2:51 helped extend Navy's run to 5-0. Two successful free throws by Moore at 1:28 continued this run before a Braxton jumper with 32 seconds knotted the game at 19-19. A late Saint Joe's layup helped the Hawks take a slim two-point lead into the locker room at halftime.
 
With the score 21-19, Saint Joseph's quickly pulled ahead by seven points with a 5-0 run to start the third quarter. Lindsay Llewellyn (Fr., North East, Md.) fought her way into the box score with a physical drive to the hoop and layup at 6:19 to put an end to the Hawks' run. The hosts slowly built its lead out to 10 points at 33-23 with seven of the next nine points. Jennifer Coleman (So., Richmond, Va.) put Navy's offense on her back with a three-pointer and deep jumper in back-to-back possessions to help the Mids decrease their deficit to a seven-point margin, 35-28 by the 2:33 mark. Four points by Saint Joseph's down the stretch made it an 11-point contest through three quarters of play.
 
A slow start to the fourth quarter saw Navy initially score the first three points of the frame courtesy of a Taylor trey from the wing at 9:27. The game stayed at this 39-31 score for the next two and half minutes before Saint Joe's tallied the next five points. Trailing by 13 points at the 6:17 mark, the Mids went on a brief 7-3 run with a Taylor three-pointer helping her squad cut its deficit to single-digits, 47-38 at 3:33. Baskets by the Hawks' Katie Jakot at 2:33 and Braxton at 2:00 closed the scoring in the defensive affair to send the contest final at 49-40.
 
For the game, Saint Joseph's outshot Navy, 38.8 percent (19-49) to 27.6 (16-58) from the field and 61.6 percent (8-13) to 30.0 (3-10) from the foul line, while the Mids held a slight 26.3 percent (5-19) to 18.8 (3-16) advantage from three-point range.
 
In the rebounding battle, the Hawks finished with two more boards, 39-37, though the Mids tallied 19 offensive caroms.
 
Defensively, Navy forced 15 turnovers and recorded seven steals. Braxton led the way with three thefts.
 
"I thought Montana was inspiring tonight, she showed great competitiveness and was involved in a ton of hustle plays, loose balls, rebounds, steals and deflections," said Pemper. "I thought Mimi was good too tonight in her first collegiate start, 2-4 from the field with only two turnovers and four rebounds.
 
"With so many of these women this is the first season of them getting big minutes, so this is a great environment. You can only learn from these games if you have the intention of wanting to be good. They want to be good so we've got to learn from tonight."
 
Navy will have a quick turnaround before heading into Patriot League play this Thursday at Lehigh. The matchup between the Mids and Mountain Hawks is set for a 6 p.m. tip-off in Bethlehem, Pa.