ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team earned a much-needed win on Wednesday night versus Lafayette as it looked to jumpstart its push towards the Patriot League Tournament. Trailing 25-21 with less than a minute to play in the first half, the Mids (10-14, 5-9 PL) closed the quarter on a 6-0 run to take a two-point lead into the locker room. In the second half, it was all Mids as the hosts scored 38 points and eventually pulled away for the 65-53 victory over the Leopards (7-18, 2-12 PL) at Alumni Hall. 23 points from Navy's bench and eight made three-pointers led the way for the Mids in the contest.
 
Individually, Navy had five players record nine or more points versus Lafayette on Wednesday. Jennifer Coleman (Fr., Richmond, Va.) highlighted the quintet with her eighth double-double of the season as she scored 16 points and corralled 11 rebounds. Coming off the bench, Mary Kate Ulasewicz (Jr., Doylestown, Pa.) was the second-highest scorer for Navy with a career-high 12 points on 3-3 shooting from three-point range and three made foul shots over 25 minutes of play. Sophie Gatzounas (So., South Hadley, Mass.) and Kolbi Green (Fr., Baltimore, Md.) each added 10 points to help the Mids' cause. Another reserve, Darryl Langford (Fr., Fayetteville, Ga.) joined Ulasewicz with career-best totals as she netted nine points on three three-pointers in eight minutes of action.
 
"I'm real proud of the team," remarked head coach Stefanie Pemper. "It's fascinating that we've had two really good practices on Monday and Tuesday and yet we were struggling in the first half a little bit until the excitement of the three-ball and a couple of players who haven't played much lately in MK and Darryl found success. It's cool when things like that happen."
 
"Our zone wasn't working great early because they had a smart approach to it so we had to change it up and went with full-court pressure. Our women carried over the momentum from the end of the second and came out of the gate strong in the third quarter. Even though you cool down and sit for halftime, it was awesome to see our response in the third. Kolbi, Jenn, Bianca [Roach] sped their players up, got some deflections, cut off lanes and turned that into breakaways. It's been awhile since we've had that."
 
Both teams opened the game over the first 3:30 with some success on offense as the Leopards were 3-5 from the field, while the Mids were 2-4. Trailing 6-4, Navy jumped ahead of Lafayette with a three-pointer by Green at 6:01. Green had a hand in extending the Mids' lead to three points, 9-6, on the ensuing possession as she hit a cutting Gatzounas along the baseline for an easy basket. Consecutive layups by Morgan Taylor (Jr., Evans, Ga.) and Coleman at 2:45 and 2:08 helped Navy take a seven-point lead of 15-8. The Leopards netted a pair of scores over the final 92 seconds, while the Mids countered with one, a Gatzounas jumper, to make it 17-12 game at the end of the first quarter. 
 
The visitors from Easton, Pa. started the second period off strongly as the Leopards' freshman guard Jiselle Havas made three consecutive three-pointers in a space of 2:38 to spot Lafayette a 21-17 lead by the 7:22 mark. The contest stayed at that four-point margin for over three minutes until Jasmine Bishop (So., Twinsburg, Ohio) broke the Mids' scoreless streak at 4:02 to make it 21-19. After Lafayette re-established a four-point lead of 25-21, Navy's bench duo of Ulasewicz and Langford went back-to-back with three-pointers in the final 37 seconds to help the Mids end the half up 27-25.
 
"When MK and Darryl came in it was like the lid that was on the rim only applied to the starters; that was just awesome!" exclaimed Pemper. "What can you say about MK; wow! She had a couple of really good practices leading up to the game and she carries a great deal of confidence. When she was on the bench, the same things that bothered me, bothered her so I believed in that. Darryl can be a really good shooter. She's tall, athletic and can get that three-point shot off quickly. Jennifer did a great job of finding her; they have that connection from prep school. Her spark was awesome."
 
At the half, Navy was outshooting Lafayette, 40.0 percent (12-30) to 37.9 percent (11-29). Both teams made three treys in the opening 20 minutes.
 
Coming out of the locker room up 27-25, the Mids recorded five points in a matter of 31 seconds as defense turned into offense as Green came away with a steal to feed Coleman at 9:49 before Coleman returned the favor 20 seconds later with a steal and pass to Green for the fast-break layup. This quick run forced the Leopards to burn a timeout. After Lafayette cut it to five at 32-27, Green ran off an individual scoring run of five points to make it a 10-point game, 37-27. As quickly as the that momentum went the way of the Mids, the Leopards were able to counter it with a 10-0 run of their own over a span of 2:36. Tied 37-37 at 5:26, Ulasewicz notched her second three-pointer of the game to help Navy re-take the lead. After the teams traded baskets to make it a 42-39 contest, Langford quickly turned it into a nine-point game with consecutive three-pointers at 2:53 and 2:04. The Mids capped the their highest-scoring quarter of the 2018-19 season with four more points to make it 52-42 after 30 minutes of play. The Mids' 25-point period was buoyed by four three-pointers and a perfect 5-5 showing at the foul line. The quartet of Green (7 points), Langford (6), Coleman (5) and Ulasewicz (5) netted 23 of the team's 25 points.
 
Starting the fourth quarter up 10, Navy used seven points from the duo of Ulasewicz (4) and Coleman (3) to extend its lead to 17 at 59-42 by the 7:58 mark. The action slowed down over the next five-plus minutes as both teams scored just four points. Trailing 63-46, the Leopards scored seven of the game's last nine points to conclude the contest at 65-53.
 
For the game, Navy outshot Lafayette, 41.7 percent (25-60) to 40.7 percent (22-54). Both teams posted similar three-point marks as the Leopards were 33.3 percent (6-18) from distance versus a 30.8 mark (8-26) for the Mids. The eight made treys were the second-most by Navy this season.
 
Lafayette won the battle on the boards with a 39-32 advantage. Sophomore forward Natalie Kucowski was a force on the glass with 19 rebounds for the Leopards. Coleman led the Mids with 11 caroms. She now has double-digit rebound totals in four of her last six games and seven Patriot League games this season.
 
Defensively, Navy forced Lafayette into 20 turnovers and was credited with 10 steals. Green (4), Coleman (2) and Bianca Roach (2) all recorded multiple thefts.
 
The Mids' ball movement was working well on Wednesday night with 16 assists on 25 baskets. Navy only turned the ball over 13 times for its best assist-to-turnover ratio of 2018-19. For the second straight game, Coleman tied her career-high with six helpers. She's now tallied five or more assists in three of her last four games.
 
With the win, Navy improved to 5-9 in Patriot League play and moved into seventh place in the conference. The Mids have four games remaining in the regular season as they look to continue climbing the standings.
 
Navy will continue late season Patriot League action on the road at Boston University on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off between the Mids and Terriers is set for 2 p.m. at Case Gym.