ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The 2019 Women's Basketball Star will be on the line this Saturday before a world-wide audience when Navy (9-13, 4-8 PL) hosts Army (9-14, 4-8 PL) in a 12-noon contest at Navy's Alumni Hall. Facing off for the 73rd time in series history, the Mids will be looking to finding that winning touch that saw the team win five straight games over the Black Knights during the 2017 and 2018 seasons as they dropped a hard-fought 55-52 decision at West Point earlier this season on Jan. 19. The action between the service academy rivals will be aired nationally by CBS Sports Network with the Armed Forces Network carrying the broadcast live to service men and women throughout the world.

Outside of the television broadcast, Navy will be providing live radio via WNAV (AM-1430 / FM-99.9) and live stats on NavyStats.com. (Note -- there will not be an online video stream available on the Patriot League Network for Saturday's contest.)

Saturday's women's game is the first half of a basketball doubleheader as the Army-Navy men's basketball game will begin at approximately 2:30 p.m. at Alumni Hall. Both games are part of the 2018-19 Star Series presented by USAA.

Last Time Out
Faced with a difficult matchup against a Holy Cross team that came into the day 9-2 in home games, Navy faced another uphill climb on Wednesday as it found itself with a gameday unlike any other in its recent history. Due to a winter storm in the Northeast on Tuesday, the team was forced to start its day in Annapolis with an 8 a.m. walkthrough before jumping on a plane to Boston and bussing directly to the Hart Center. After the Mids finally arrived in Worcester they matched up with a physical Crusader squad in an extremely competitive Patriot League women's basketball game with tight back-and-forth action throughout. After the horn sounded following 40 minutes of play, the host Crusaders (14-9, 6-6 PL) were three points better than the Mids (9-13, 4-8 PL) with a final score of 47-44. During the course of play neither team was able to hold more than a six-point lead.

The first quarter was filled with tight back-and-forth play throughout before Jennifer Coleman turned a 14-10 game into a 14-13 contest with a buzzer-beating three for the Mids at the end of the period.

After Holy Cross netted the first basket of the second quarter to go up 16-13, Navy fired back with five unanswered points with Morgan Taylor adding the exclamation mark with a three-pointer at 7:54. With the Mids up 18-16, the Crusaders took the next five minutes of play by an 11-4 margin. Trailing 27-22, Sierra Swanda got Navy back in the scoring column at 1:14 with a layup. A three-pointer by Kolbi Green with 29 seconds left in the period tied the game once again at 27-27.

Coming out of the locker room even, the host Crusaders immediately went up by three as they sank a trey 23 second in. That was the only basket for three minutes until Holy Cross made a layup at 6:32. Behind on the scoreboard 32-27, Taylor and Coleman shaved four points off the Mids' deficit by 5:31 before another Coleman basket put Navy back ahead, 33-32 at 4:53. The back-and-forth competition continued as Holy Cross fired back with a three-pointer 19 seconds later to make it 35-33.

With Holy Cross up 39-35 to start the final period of regulation play, Laurel Jaunich made the only basket of the first four minutes as she caught a back-door screen pass from Coleman and deposited the easy layup at 7:45. Coleman tied the game for the ninth time when she collected her own rebound and beat the shot clock at 5:56. Holy Cross scored seven of the next 10 points to go up 46-42 by the 1:27 mark. Jaunich cut the Mids' deficit to two points with a layup with 52 seconds left. The Crusaders made one foul shot in the waning seconds to conclude the game with a 47-44 final score.

In the contest, Holy Cross outshot Navy, 39.6 percent (21-53) to 33.3 (19-57). Neither team had much success from three-point range or the foul line as the Crusaders shot 27.3 percent (3-11) from distance and 15.4 percent (2-13) from the charity stripe, while the Mids were 20.0 percent (3-15) from three and 37.5 percent (3-8) from the foul line.

Coleman led Navy's offensive attack with a game-high 14 points. The freshman point guard added to her stat-line with a career-high 16 rebounds. Taylor aided the Mids' effort with seven points off the bench.

Looking Back at Army-Navy Game One: January 19, 2019
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 January 19. 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. Later on in the second with the score 29-22 in favor of 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.

In the 55-52 victory for Army, the Black Knights outshot the Mids, 41.2 percent (21-51) to 33.3 from the field and 38.5 percent (5-13) to 26.9 (7-26) from three-point range. Navy held a slight 58.3 percent (7-12) to 50.0 (8-16) margin in free throw shooting.

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 Army
The Mids and Black Knights have met 72 times in a series that began on January 18, 1981  ... All-time, Navy leads Army, 37-35, though the Black Knights are 17-16 in games played in Annapolis ... The Mids have won the past two matchups at Alumni Hall in 2017 and 2018 ... In her 11 seasons as head coach Stefanie Pemper is 13-9 versus Army ... Over the last ten matchups, Navy is 6-4; prior to their showdown at West Point in January, the Mids had won five straight decisions over the Black Knights.
    Last 5 Games:
    Jan. 19, 2019 (A): Army 55 - Navy 52
    Feb. 10, 2018 (A): Navy 55 - Army 46 **2018 Star Game
    Jan. 14, 2018 (H): Navy 70 - Army 44
    March 10, 2017 (N): Navy 54 - Army 53 *Patriot League Semifinals (at Bucknell)
    Feb. 18, 2017 (H): Navy 67 - Army 62 **2017 Star Game

Comparing the Teams

(2018-19 Stats)	Navy	Army
Record / Patriot League	9-13 / 4-8	9-14 / 4-8
Home / Away Record	5-6 / 4-7	6-7/ 3-7
Points Per Game	54.3 PPG	55.8 PPG
Points Allowed Per Game	55.7 PPG	58.9 PPG
Field Goal Percentage	33.3 %	35.9 %
3-Point Percentage	23.9 %	28.8 %
Free Throw Percentage	63.5 %	61.5 %
Rebounds Per Game	39.0 RPG	41.6 RPG
Assists/Turnovers Per Game	10.6 / 17.0	11.3 / 15.1

Individual Leaders

(2018-19 Stats)	Navy	Army
Points Per Game	Coleman, 12.3 PPG	M. Hovren, 18.0 PPG
Rebounds Per Game	Coleman, 8.3 RPG	M. Hovren, 12.9 RPG
Assists Per Game	Coleman, 2.6 APG	J. Lewis, 5.0 APG
Field Goal Percentage	Gatzounas, 44.1 %	L. Scamman, 49.4 %
3-Point Percentage	Coleman, 31.6 %	S. Bohn, 37.5 %
Free Throw Percentage	Green, 78.4 %	J. Lewis, 75.0 %

Defense Wins Games
In the most recent NCAA Division I statistical rankings, the Midshipmen stand 17th overall in scoring defense by allowing just 55.7 points per game and 20th in steals per game with 11.1 thefts on average ... This comes on the heels of the team ranking seventh and 25th, respectively in the same categories in 2017-18.

Home Sweet Home
Navy will be looking forward to playing in the friendly confines of Alumni Hall as the team has 11 or more games in the arena every season since 2010-11 ... Since that season, the Mids are 106-36 at home.

Saturday's Promotions
Navy will welcome the Firecrackers Jump Rope Team to Saturday's game. The world-famous jump rope squad will be performing at halftime of both games of the doubleheader.

Parking/Shuttle Ticket Information
Vehicle access to the U.S. Naval Academy is limited to those with a Department of Defense identification card ... It is suggested that everyone else park at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium ($10 per vehicle) and ride the free shuttle bus to and from the game ... Shuttle bus service will begin one hour prior to tip (11 AM). Note that a government issued identification card must be carried and presented by visitors ages 18 and older to the USNA prior to being allowed onto The Yard.

Tickets
Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for youth online in advance of the game at NavySports.com. The Alumni Hall Ticket Office will open one hour prior to the start of the game. Only a limited quantity of upper-level general admission tickets remain.