BALTIMORE – The Navy women's basketball team concluded its 2018-19 season on Saturday afternoon in Baltimore with 58-45 loss to Loyola in the first round of the 2019 Patriot League Championship Tournament. Seeded ninth in the 10-team tournament, the Mids (10-19) were never able to find its comfort zone against the Greyhounds (7-23) as the eighth-seed hosts led for 37:15 of the 40 minutes. On a day were neither team was particularly explosive on offense a 19-21 showing at the foul line by Loyola helped the squad knock off Navy and advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
 
Facing a difficult zone defense from the Greyhounds, the Mids were unable to find a go-to scorer on offense and saw five players net between seven and nine points. Senior team captain Bianca Roach (Virginia Beach, Va.) and sophomore Sophie Gatzounas (South Hadley, Mass.) tied for top honors with nine points each. Freshman guard Jennifer Coleman (Richmond, Va.) recorded eight points, while battling foul trouble throughout much of the first half.
 
"This loss definitely hurts," remarked head coach Stefanie Pemper. "I think our hearts are heaviest because it was Bianca's last game. She's meant so much to this program. They [Loyola] shot free throws too well for us to beat them. We weren't able to get enough offensive rebounds to get some put-backs and get ourselves to the foul line.
 
"We never really got super comfortable against their zone. Neither team shot the three well. We talked at halftime about ways to get some dribble penetration against the zone. A lot of times you just try to pass the ball and find the open shooter against zones. They did a good job of playing our personnel and they really required us to find the gaps with our dribble; we did that better in the second half. We hung in there and made some runs. Our defensive focus was there, but we just weren't able to keep them off the foul line in the end."
 
Roach got the first round contest going in Navy's favor as she tallied the game's first points 39 seconds in. Soon after, the host Greyhounds responded with nine of the next 11 points over a span of 4:53. With the score, 9-4 for Loyola, Gatzounas notched her second field goal of the quarter with a pull-up jump at 4:28. Following that basket that cut it to three points, the Greyhounds came right back with consecutive makes. Trailing 14-6, Gatzounas knocked down a three-pointer at 1:47; this sparked a brief 5-0 run by the Mids to close the first quarter at 14-11.
 
Gatzounas continued her run of hot play with her fourth field of the game 30 seconds into the second quarter. Gatzounas' eighth and ninth points cut Navy's deficit to just one point at 14-13. Loyola's Delaney Connolly matched Gatzounas with nine points of her own and the Greyhounds quickly expanded their lead out to five by the 7:29 mark. Four more points by Taleah Dixon in quick succession provided Loyola a 22-13 advantage by 5:34. Trailing by 11, 24-13, the Mids fought back with five unanswered points before the Greyhounds swung their lead right back to double-digits with four unanswered points down the stretch in the quarter.
 
Down 28-18 at the half, Navy was outshot from the field, 38.5 percent (10-26) to 27.6 (8-29) and 88.9 percent (8-9) to 25.0 (1-4) from the foul line. Neither team had much success from distance as Navy netted the only three-pointer of the opening 20 minutes.
 
Plagued with foul trouble through much of the first half, Coleman came out in the third quarter and netted four of the Mids' first six points over a matter of 2:02. She also helped Navy's offense as a facilitator with assists on Navy's two other made baskets over the first 4:25 of the quarter. This run of play helped the visitors cut Loyola's lead to just seven points at 34-27. Similar to the first 20 minutes, the Greyhounds had an answer for the Mids and quickly increased their lead into double-digit territory. With the score 40-27 at 2:50, Navy swung the momentum back in its way with a three-pointer by Kolbi Green (Fr., Baltimore, Md.) at 2:23 and a three-point and-one conversion for Roach at 1:49 to make it 40-33. Both teams recorded a pair of points over the final 50 seconds to send the game into the final quarter of regulation at 42-35.
 
Trailing by seven, Green immediately cut it to five with a layup 28 seconds in. After a Coleman free throw at 8:50 made it a 42-38 game, Loyola had its rebuttal in the form of a 9-0 run in a matter of 1:57. Troubled with a 0-10 span of field goal shooting, a layup by Jasmine Bishop (So., Twinsburg, Ohio) at 2:33 stopped the Greyhounds' streak and made it a 55-40 contest. Bishop collected three more points for the Mids as the time on the scoreboard dwindled. At the conclusion of 40 minutes of play, Loyola was victorious 58-45.
 
Coleman's free throw in the fourth quarter was her eighth and final point of the game. With eight points on Saturday, the All-Patriot League Third Team honoree completed her freshman campaign with 379 points, the third-most in program history by a freshman. She surpassed Becky Dowling's 1994-95 campaign (374 points) earlier in the contest.
 
For the game, Loyola outshot Navy, 37.3 percent (19-51) to 31.0 (18-58) and 90.5 percent (19-21) to 50.0 (7-14) from the charity stripe. Both teams' cold streak from three-point range continued in the second half as the Mids finished 2-21 versus a 1-12 mark for the Greyhounds. In a contest in which the Mids only turned the ball over eight times, those 12 extra points at the foul line were critical. 
 
Buoyed by a Patriot League Tournament-record 22 rebounds from junior Stephanie Karcz, Loyola held a substantial 46-26 advantage on the boards. Coleman and Bishop led the Mids with six rebounds each. With five of those caroms coming from the defensive end, Coleman completed her freshman year with 166, tying Becky Dowling (1997-98) and Cassie Consedine (2008-09) for the seventh-most defensive rebounds in a single-season. She finished just 11 total rebounds shy of breaking into the top-10 of that category as she tallied 238 over 29 contests this season.
 
Navy ended the game with a positive 10:8 assist-to-turnover ratio on Saturday. Coleman and Roach each registered three assists for the Mids.
 
The visitors turned the Greyhounds over 16 and were credited with nine steals. Roach was one of three players with two steals on the day. With those two thefts, Roach completed her career with 161 steals, the tenth-most in the history of the program.

 "We've talked about it as a team. Every coach and every player has something to learn from this season," said Pemper. "We never found the answers and weren't able to end the season on a high note and that's hard. We certainly weren't able to execute as well as we have in the past and that's coaching, that's playing, that's inexperience. Honestly, a lot of other teams stepped up and made plays against us this year."

Saturday's game concludes Navy's season and the four-year career of Roach, the team's only senior. During her four years with the Mids, Roach appeared in 123 games with 64 career starts. She scored 577 points, corralled 264 rebounds, assisted on 170 baskets and came away with 161 steals.
 
"We're going to miss Bianca a whole lot," answered Pemper when asked about her senior team captain. She brought the effort, the selflessness, the team play, the defense and the respect. She had such a pleasantness about her every day. That's really special, not a lot of people can do that. She is very proud of our program and she made a lot of steps this year to maintain some of the good identity and culture that we have. Leadership is not easy, that's for sure. There is a positivity to her that is so important. She comes to the gym every day and is present and gives great effort. She's so about the team and what the coaches are preaching, she did that so well. Our whole staff loves her and will miss her a lot."