ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Less than two days after taking on the Patriot League preseason favorites Lehigh on the road, the Navy women's basketball team came home on Saturday to face off with the team picked number two in the Patriot League, Holy Cross. In 40 minutes of hard fought competitive action, Navy and Holy Cross went toe-to-toe at Alumni Hall with the Mids (5-8, 0-2 PL) leading at half before the Crusaders (9-4, 2-0 PL) came from behind for a 58-49 victory.
 
The Mids stayed close throughout as they converted nine three-pointers during the contest with seven of those coming from the duo of Laurel Jaunich (Sr., Charlotte, Vt.) and Lindsay Llewellyn (Fr., North East, Md.). Jaunich's line on Saturday consisted of a career-high 16 points and four three-pointers over 38 minutes of play, while Llewellyn tallied a personal-best 13 points and three treys.
 
"There are a lot positives to take out of this game," remarked head coach Stefanie Pemper. "Our performance in the first half was great. To get 18 points in the second quarter with some new personnel was really positive. We're still working on finding our confidence and you saw that in the first half. Laurel Jaunich was great all game. What can you say about her. She played 38 minutes and battled throughout with Lauren Manis and Megan Swords.
 
"Holy Cross was coming in at the end of a nine-day road trip and we showed up ready to play and jumped on them early today. We fought throughout. They obviously showed their experience in the third quarter, but I thought that we answered them pretty well. We got down 12 early in the fourth and called a timeout; we talked about continuing to fight and staying in this game. We responded and made plays. We can learn a lot from today's game."
 
Navy's defense was strong out of the gate on Saturday as the Mids turned the Crusaders over three times in the first four minutes with a pair of steals by Morgan Taylor (Sr., Evans, Ga.) and the third by Mary Kate Ulasewicz (Sr., Doylestown, Pa.). In two of those occasions, Navy converted those steals into fast break baskets, a pair of Ulasewicz layups. The game stayed at a 4-4 mark until the 3:47 point of play when Holy Cross began a brief 4-0 run. A three-pointer from the top of the arch by Jaunich at 3:21 made it a one-point contest, 8-7. The Mids re-took the lead less than two minutes later when Maggie Moore (Fr., Ruffs Dale, Pa.) made a jumper. Four straight points by the Crusaders closed the quarter with a 12-9 score in favor of the visitors.
 
Trailing by three coming out of the first quarter break, Navy immediately found its scoring touch with four makes on its first six shots. This 10-2 run over the first 2:59 of the quarter helped the Mids build up a 19-14 lead. Llewellyn was at the forefront of this effort for Navy with five points, including a three-pointer from the wing as Ulasewicz drove hard into the lane and kicked out to the freshman. After Holy Cross' Avery LaBarbera netted a trey of her own, the Mids fired back with five unanswered points, a Jaunich layup and a Mimi Schrader (Fr., Plymouth, Minn.) three-pointer to give Navy its largest lead of the game of seven, 24-17. The teams traded baskets down the stretch with the Crusaders scoring five and the Mids three. Jaunich put the exclamation mark on Navy's first half effort with her third three-pointer of the game to give her 11 total points. The teams retired to the locker room with the score 27-22 for the Mids.
 
The second half began similar to the way the first half ended with teams finding success from long range. Over the opening 83 seconds both Navy and Holy Cross had tallied a three-pointer. For the Mids, that trey came courtesy of Jaunich, her fourth such made field goal of the game. Of note, Jaunich came into the game shooting one of nine from three-point range for the season. From that basket at 8:27 through the 6:03 mark of the quarter the Crusaders ran off an 11-2 streak to flip the score from 30-25 in favor of Navy to 36-32 for Holy Cross. The Mids quickly cut that four-point deficit down to one with a Llewellyn three-pointer and a Nyah Garrison (Fr., Brookhaven, Pa.) offensive rebound and putback. With the score 38-37 at 3:02, Holy Cross scored the final four points of the period.
 
Leading 42-37 to start the fourth quarter, the visitors from Worcester, Mass. kept the game's momentum on its side with a 7-0 run to take a 12-point lead by the 7:01 point of the quarter. A pair of successful free throws by Taylor at 5:46 put an end to the Crusaders' streak and it was a 49-39 contest. After Holy Cross built its advantage out to 13 points, a Ulasewicz three-pointer and a pair of made free throws by Sophie Gatzounas (Jr., South Hadley, Mass.) quickly made it 52-44 by 3:54. Two more baskets by Jaunich and Llewellyn down the stretch helped Navy keep it close with Holy Cross as the final horn sounded with the score Holy Cross 58 and Navy 49.
 
"My mom all the way in Missoula, Montana was watching us play these last couple of games and said to me 'that number 10 needs to shot more,' I told Laurel that," remarked Pemper when asked about Jaunich's large role in Saturday's effort. "My mom has not coached a day in her life so it had to be pretty obvious. We talk about wanting to be in these great competitive moments and this is why you want to play Division I basketball.
 
"I really liked Lindsay's game too today. I'm really happy that she knocked down some threes. She works so hard in the gym. She's there every day even if it's an off day. I was really happy to see her hard work pay off. I also don't remember her making a bad play defensively either. In a game like this against an opponent like Holy Cross, that's huge. They try to pound it inside, but they have great guards so our guards had to be really good defensively, especially on their ball screens. I feel Lindsay answered that call pretty well."
 
For the game, Holy Cross out-shot Navy, 41.5 percent (22-53) to 32.7 (18-55) from the field and 41.7 percent (5-12) to 33.3 (9-27) from three-point range. The Mids were four of six from the line (66.7 percent), while the Crusaders were nine of 17 (52.9 percent) from the charity stripe.
 
Holy Cross out-rebound Navy, 41-32 with 12 offensive boards to its name. For the Mids, Taylor and Gatzounas tied for the team lead with seven rebounds each.
 
Defensively, Navy forced Holy Cross into 14 turnovers on the strength of 10 steals. Taylor led Navy in that category as well with four thefts.
 
"I like how our team responded especially after such a tough loss on Thursday to a really good Lehigh team," closed Pemper. "This is our third game in five days with two road trips. For this to be the effort at the end of it shows some grit and mettle."
 
Navy will continue home Patriot League play with action at Alumni Hall on Wednesday evening versus Bucknell. The tip-off between the Mids and Bison is set for 7 p.m.