ANNAPOLIS, Md. – In a low-scoring, defensive bout, the Navy women's basketball team looked to knock off American at home Wednesday night, but was stricken with a late fourth quarter slump to help the visitors from Washington, D.C. hold on for the 48-40 victory. With the score 44-38 with six minutes to go in the game, the Mids (7-18, 2-12 PL) held the Eagles (10-14, 6-8 PL) to four total points down the stretch, but were only able to muster two points of their own as they fell before their home crowd at Alumni Hall.
 
Mary Kate Ulasewicz (Sr., Doylestown, Pa.) led Navy's offensive effort with a team-high 15 points in 32 minutes of action. Coming off the bench, Jasmine Bishop (Jr., Twinsburg, Ohio) spurred the Mids' work on the boards with a team-high seven rebounds.
 
"We talk about how we have to put together a little more of a complete game, but we didn't do that tonight," remarked head coach Stefanie Pemper. "American's man offense is hard to guard. We got off to such a tough start and then in the second quarter it was all about our zone defense. They made adjustments at the half. We never got that hot hand on offense, but you want to give players chances hoping that they will become hot, but that never happened tonight. The story of the game was our shooting percentage."
 
American opened the contest with a quick 9-0 lead over the first 3:20 of play. Ulasewicz finally got Navy onto the scoreboard with an elbow jumper at 5:05. While the Mids still struggled to get their offensive footing, their defense held the Eagles without a point for nearly four minutes. A Montana Braxton (Sr., Cape Elizabeth, Maine) layup at 3:12 helped Navy inch closer and make it 9-4. This sparked a run of four combined baskets over five possessions as American netted five points, while Navy had four, all from Braxton. As quickly as the offenses heated up, they cooled off for the final 95 seconds of the first quarter as the period ended with the visitors up 14-6. Navy shot just 18.8 percent (3-16) from the field, while American hit 14.3 percent (1-7) from three-point range.
 
Trailing by eight points coming out of the quarter break, the Mids tallied the first 10 points with Morgan Taylor (Sr., Evans, Ga.) getting the offense going with a three-pointer from the wing at 9:09. Seeing her first action since December 30, Jennifer Coleman (So., Richmond, Va.) sprinted through the lane and received a lead pass from Braxton for a layup two minutes later to draw Navy within three points, 14-11. A layup from Bishop and a three-pointer from Ulasewicz rounded out the 10-0 run to put the Mids ahead 16-14 at the 4:11 mark of the period. American finally broke its 8:41 scoreless streak at 2:54 when Kaitlyn Marenyi converted a fast break layup. This was the first of two straight baskets for the visitors as the Eagles re-took the lead 18-16. A long offensive rebound and quick putback by Mimi Schrader (Fr., Plymouth, Minn.) allowed the Mids to tie the game for the second time at 1:38. A late jumper by the Eagles' Indeya Sanders was the final field goal of the half and the game went into the locker room with American ahead 20-18. In a complete reversal from the first quarter, Navy shot 50.0 percent (5-10) in the second stanza, while holding American to a 23.1 percent (3-13) mark.
 
The second half opened with the team trading baskets. After American went up early by four, 22-18, the game stayed within one possession for the next four-plus minutes until the Eagles extended their lead back out to four, 28-24 at 4:37. Nyah Garrison (Fr., Brookhaven, Pa.) and Ulasewicz each scored three points for the Mids during this stretch. Navy fought right back as Bishop was a recipient of a slick Coleman pass for a layup the next time down the court. The back-and-forth action continued as American went up four briefly just to see Navy counter with a Coleman offensive rebound and putback. With the score 30-28 at the 2:00 mark, American concluded the period with seven of the final nine points, all from Jade Edwards. 
 
Coming out in the fourth quarter trailing 37-30, Navy quickly fell behind by nine before Ulasewicz responded with a three-pointer at 8:40 to cut the Mids' deficit to 39-33. Over the next two minutes, the Eagles slowly built their advantage back to nine before Lindsay Llewellyn (Fr., North East, Md.) knocked down her first shot of the game a corner three-pointer at 6:07 to make it 44-38. The game stayed at that exact score for the next 3:59 until Ulasewicz went to the line and sank a pair of free throws at 2:08. Mired in a 6:13 scoreless slump, American called on Edwards once again as the game's leading scorer knocked down a jumper with 48 seconds to help the visitors extend their lead back out to six, 46-40. Two free throws by Sanders with 27 seconds remaining closed the scoring at 48-40.
 
"Jade Edwards was really great for American tonight; she just wanted to win this game," reflected Pemper. "She finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds shooting eight for 11 from the field. We never found a great answer for her competitively. Nothing tonight necessarily shocked me, but it was just an accumulation of too many little things for it to be a complete enough game for us. We had opportunities late, but once again Edwards was active and made things happen."
 
For the game, American outshot Navy, 34.0 percent (18-53) to 26.2 percent (16-61). Neither team had much success from three-point range as the Mids shot 29.4 percent (5-17) versus the Eagles' 20.0 percent (4-20) mark. At the foul line, Navy was 3-4, while American was 8-13.
 
The visitors won the battle on the glass, 44-39, though the Mids crashed the offensive boards successfully with 13 offensive rebounds. Bishop corralled a team-high seven rebounds. Braxton, Ulasewicz and Garrison all added five caroms.
 
Navy's defense forced 17 American turnovers and were credited with nine steals. Braxton, Taylor and Coleman each had two thefts.
 
"I'm a little concerned about our chemistry on the court," said Pemper. "We were trying to rotate a lot of people back in who have been out. You saw how our chemistry was affected by new players in the rotation. We'll be ready to go Saturday at Army. Then we'll have to be ready to go back on the road at Loyola next Wednesday, which should be a really tough game."
 
The Mids will now turn their attention to its rivals from West Point as the Army-Navy Star Game is set for Saturday morning at 11 a.m. The action at Christl Arena will be televised live on CBS Sports Network.