FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Navy women's basketball team, winners of three straight games ran into a hot shooting Fairfield team on Wednesday night in Connecticut. In the first-ever meeting between the Mids (5-4) and Stags (2-4), a 23-11 advantage in the second quarter spurred Fairfield onto victory in front of its home fans at Alumni Hall.
 
The Mids were led by a pair of individuals in double figures as Morgan Taylor (Sr., Evans, Ga.) posted a team-best 14 points on 5-9 shooting from the floor and a 4-5 mark from three-point territory. Jennifer Coleman (So., Richmond, Va.) joined Taylor with a double-double performance of 12 points and 11 rebounds.
 
"We ran into a pretty focused and determined Fairfield team tonight," remarked head coach Stefanie Pemper. "They went inside a lot, but also were a problem for us on the outside as their leading scorer [Lou Lopez-Senechal] was really on from the perimeter early on. When we're struggling to get stops it can adversely affect our offense. We turned the ball over 11 times in the first half. It feels like that was the difference. In the second half, we only turned it over five times, we defended better and held their top-two scorers to two points each. We had a tough second quarter that cost us the game.
 
"We weren't able to go on a 10- or 12-point run that would've really gotten us back into the game. We were never able to sustain much rhythm offensively. When you're coming off a really good win over a La Salle team and you're on a three-game win streak, you're going to get people's best shot. Their coach has a lot of respect for us and their team was real focused tonight."
 
The action started off back-and-forth with Fairfield opening with an initial 5-2 lead over its first two possessions. Navy responded in short order and took the lead at 6-5 by the 6:51 mark on the strength of a Mary Kate Ulasewicz (Sr., Doylestown, Pa.) layup. The Mids' 4-0 run grew up to 9-0 with a Sophie Gatzounas (Jr., South Hadley, Mass.) layup at 5:45 and a Ulasewicz trey from the top of the arc at 4:45. That basket forced the Stags to burn a timeout to try and stop the Mids' momentum. The hosts did just that with seven unanswered points in a matter of 2:25 to re-take the lead, 12-11. Another Fairfield basket, a Callie Cavanaugh jumper at 1:33 extended its lead out to 14-11 before Gatzounas came down the court on the ensuing possession and knotted it with her first three-pointer of the game. A late Stag field goal helped the team take a 16-14 lead into the first quarter break. While shooting 50.0 percent (5-10) from the field, Navy was held back in the first period by seven turnovers.
 
Invigorated by its late run, Fairfield came out in the second quarter and scored nine of the first 11 points to go up 25-16 over Navy with the first 3:03 of play. After a pair of successful free throws by Montana Braxton (Sr., Cape Elizabeth, Maine), a run of three-pointers, two for Fairfield and one for Navy, a Taylor trey, increased the score to 31-21 in favor of the Stags by the 3:13 mark. Fairfield closed out its strong quarter with eight more points, while Navy countered with four to make it 39-25 at the expiration of the first half. The Stags shot 61.5 percent (8-13) in the second quarter, while the Mids were just three of 13 from the field for 23.1 percent.
 
Coming out in the second half down 14 points, Navy slowly carved a point off its deficit culminating with a Coleman layup at 4:17. From that point on when it was 44-31, Fairfield went on a 7-0 run to increase its advantage out to 51-31. A hard-fought rebound and put-back by Coleman put an end to this run at 0:44. Another Coleman basket, a jumper at 0:11 concluded the quarter with the score, 51-35.
 
The Mids continued trying to breakthrough offensively with a lengthy run in the fourth quarter, but unfortunately for the visitors their largest span of unanswered points was six between 6:56 and 3:31 when Gatzounas netted a pair of layups, while Coleman registered her tenth point with a layup at the end of the run. With the score 57-44, Fairfield came right back with a brief 5-0 run to extend its lead back out to 18 points with 2:50 left in regulation. Taylor re-established her three-point shot down the stretch with a pair of treys over the final two and a half minutes. Her fourth trey of the game at 1:21 gave her 14 points. Wednesday was the fourth time in five games, that the senior guard had netted 14 or more points.
 
In the 66-52 decision in favor of Fairfield, the host Stags outshot the Mids from both the field and the foul line with a 46.4 percent (26-56) to 38.9 percent (21-54) advantage in field goal shooting and a 77.8 percent (7-9) to 40.0 (4-10) margin in free throw shooting. Navy edged Fairfield in three-point shooting, 46.2 percent (6-13) to 43.8 percent (7-16).
 
The teams were tied in the battle of the boards, 33-33. Coleman corralled a game-high 11 rebounds, the most for her in a 2019-20 game.
 
Defensively, Navy turnover Fairfield over 13 times courtesy of 10 steals. Ulasewicz had a game-high three thefts. Off the bench in 19 minutes of play, Braxton was credited with a pair of steals.
 
"Jasmine Bishop stepped up to a challenge tonight," said Pemper. "Montana Braxton competed out there and gave us quality minutes off the bench, as well. She got a big steal right when she came in; that was such a smart play. Morgan Taylor found success from the outside with four three-pointers."
 
Wednesday's game ends a busy stretch for the Mids in which they played six games in 12 days in four different states. The team went 3-3 during this span of play and now sit at 5-4 through nine non-conference games so far this season. With fall semester final exams on the horizon, the team will step away from the hardwood for the next two weeks. The next contest for Navy will be a home matchup on Thursday, Dec. 19 versus George Mason. Tip-off between the Mids and Patriots is set for 7 p.m. at Alumni Hall.