BOSTON – The Navy women's basketball team battled for 40 minutes on the road at Boston University, but came up short down the stretch as the host Terriers pulled away late for a 66-55 victory. Within four points at 47-43 after three quarters, the Mids (10-15, 5-10 PL) were unable to find an answer for the Terriers (13-12, 9-6 PL) in the fourth quarter as they were outscored by seven points, 19-12 in action at "The Roof" at Case Gym. 
 
Individually, Navy tightened its rotation and had four of its starters registered 32 minutes or more of playing time. On the court for a career-high 39 minutes, Kolbi Green (Fr., Baltimore, Md.) posted a personal-best of 20 points on 6-of-14 shooting, four three-pointers and four made free throws. Massachusetts native Sophie Gatzounas (So., South Hadley, Mass.) was the second-highest scorer with 13 points in 32 minutes of court time.

"I thought we really battled well on the road against the number three team in the league right now," remarked head coach Stefanie Pemper. "For three quarters we played well. We had a lead, we kept the lead, we lost the lead, but battled back to get it again. It was just a good basketball game. We had some good answer-back plays and some really good defense; we turned them over 24 times. We just went cold late. Credit to BU as they executed late in the shot clock well in the last four minutes of the game when we needed to mount a comeback." 
 
The Mids started off hot as the team deposited a pair of baskets over the first 1:36, Gatzounas put the exclamation point on that opening run with a three-pointer from the right corner. With the score 5-0, the host Terriers fired back with a pair of Lauren Spearman treys. Green helped Navy keep pace with a three-pointer of her own at 7:43. Jasmine Bishop (So., Twinsburg, Ohio) made it four Mids in the box score within four minutes as she sank a pull-up jumper at 6:17. The hectic offensive pace continued as Gatzounas made it a 12-8 game on the next possession. The Terriers rattled off an 8-2 run over the next 4:24 to knot the game at 16-16 by the 1:31 mark. Green netted her second three-pointer of the period 24 seconds later to put the Mids back ahead, 19-16. 
 
Coming out of the first quarter intermission with the score 19-16 in favor of Navy, Boston immediately responded with seven unanswered points over a 2:22 span of play. A no-look pass from Jennifer Coleman (Fr., Richmond, Va.) to a cutting Gatzounas at 7:12 got the Mids back within two points, 23-21. After playing the role of facilitator with three assists over the first quarter and a half, Coleman finally got her way into the points' column with a layup at 3:15 to make it a 27-25 game. A pair of free three throws by Gatzounas on the ensuing possession knotted the game at 27-27. From that point at 2:41, Boston closed the half on a 4-0 run to take a 31-27 lead into the locker room. That four-point lead was the largest of the opening 20 minutes for the Terriers. 
 
For the half, Boston was outshooting Navy, 47.8 percent (11-23) to 44.0 (11-25). The Terriers also had a slight edge in three-point shooting as they were accurate on 44.4 percent (4-9) of their attempts versus 37.5 percent (3-8) for the Mids. Gatzounas was the game's high scorer with 11 first-half points. 
 
Boston slowly extended its lead over Navy over the opening 2:30 of the third quarter as the hosts netted a pair baskets versus one for the Mids. Down 35-29, Green found success from distance for the third time on Saturday with a trey from the left wing at 7:11. Consecutive layups by Coleman and Green at 5:51 and 5:15 cut Navy's deficit to just one at 37-36. A successful free throw by Coleman at 4:38 re-tied the game for the fifth time, Green did the same a minute later to make it 40-40. Over the final 3:26, Boston outscored Navy 7-3 to take a 47-43 lead into the quarter break.
 
Trailing by four, the Mids dialed up their freshmen backcourt of Coleman and Green to the tune of five points in 84 seconds and just like that Navy was up 48-47. The back-and-forth action continued as the Terriers responded with a 9-2 run to go back ahead 56-50 by the 5:44 mark. Up six, Boston got a Katie Nelson jumper at 5:01 to take its then-biggest lead of the game, 58-50. Over the next two minutes, the hosts were able to add four more points to its advantage. Green ended this 11-0 run that spanned 4:20 with a pair of foul shots at 2:50. With the score 62-52, each team recorded a basket down the stretch as the Terriers made a jumper, while the Mids countered with a Darryl Langford (Fr., Fayetteville, Ga.) three-pointer. Two foul shots in the final five seconds by Boston made the final score 66-55.

"I thought Bianca's defense really made a difference today," said Pemper. "Boston has three good guards in its backcourt, two of them are seniors. One of them really shot the ball well today and she hadn't been recently and the other scored eight points above her average. That was unlucky for us. Bianca's defense wasn't enough to shut them all down, we needed a little bit more. Kolbi came out of the gate well and hit a couple of threes early on. Jenn did a good job of competing the whole way through. I thought Sophie shot the ball well. I also thought our interior defense did a good job; we kept them off the foul line. Boston normally does a nice job of getting there, but we didn't allow that today. We shortened our rotation a bit today because those women were playing so well."

For the game, Boston outshot Navy 47.3 percent (26-55) to 39.6 percent (21-53). The teams posted similar three-point percentages with the Terriers carrying a 40.0 (6-15) mark versus 37.5 (6-16) for the Mids. 
 
The Terriers held a substantial advantage in rebounds, 38-25. Coleman was the top-rebounder for the Mids with eight boards, four on offense and four on defense.
 
Defensively, Navy forced Boston into 24 turnovers with 10 steals. Bianca Roach (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.) and Sierra Swanda (So., Jacksonville, Fla.) led the Mids' cause with respective steal totals of four and three.
 
The Mids finished with 12 assists, five of which came from Coleman. Saturday was her fourth contest in the last five with five or more assists.
 
Navy will continue road Patriot League action on Wednesday with a mid-week tilt at Bucknell University. Tip-off between the Mids and Bison is slated for 6 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion in Lewisburg, Pa.