ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team found itself in a physical 40-minute contest with Colgate on Saturday afternoon in Annapolis. Taking on the highest scoring team in the Patriot League the Mids (7-15, 2-9 PL) trailed by 20 at the half before outscoring the Raiders (16-6, 8-3 PL) by 11 in the third quarter to get right back into the thick of the game. The Mids continued showing the fighting spirit in the fourth quarter, but that substantial halftime lead was too much to overcame as the visitors walked off the court at Alumni Hall with a 65-53 victory.
 
Navy was led by a well-rounded offensive effort as four players recorded 10 or more points, the first time all season that four Mids had posted totals in double figures. Mary Kate Ulasewicz (Sr., Doylestown, Pa.) had a team-high 12 points, while Montana Braxton (Sr., Cape Elizabeth, Maine) had career-bests with 11 points and nine rebounds. Both Lindsay Llewellyn (Fr., North East, Md.) and Sophie Gatzounas (Jr., South Hadley, Mass.) finished with 10 points. Gatzounas added to her line with nine rebounds.
 
"I'm super proud of the fight we showed today," remarked head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We got some tragic news before the game about one of the Midshipman on the Yard. That was hard for our team to handle 30 minutes before tip-off. We tried, but it definitely was a weird first half. We were just trying to stay poised and stay positive. We tried not to over-coach the team. You saw in the third quarter that we just played; 'we are on our home court, can we do better?' We definitely did. We opened up a few different things. You have to be a little worried about controlling the tempo versus them [Colgate], but I thought that we pushed tempo some. We rebounded well, got some steals and that turned into offense. I'm really proud of the way we fought in the second half."
 
Trailing earlier 4-0, the Mids fought back and evened the game by the 7:48 mark before extending their scoring streak to 10-0 over a span of 4:09. Ulasewicz and Gatzounas each tallied four points during this stretch. Navy was stuck at that 10-point plateau for over three-and-a-half minutes heading down to 2:25. Colgate was able to take advantage of this cold streak and evened the game at 10-10. Two successful free throws by Nyah Garrison (Fr., Brookhaven, Pa.) helped the Mids get back in the scoring column and go ahead briefly 12-10. The Raiders scored the final seven points of the stanza to take a 17-12 lead into the first quarter break.
 
Colgate continued holding Navy's offense at bay for the first 2:33 of the second quarter until Braxton fought through the lane for an offensive rebound and quick putback to make it a 19-14 game in favor of the Raiders. After Colgate expanded its lead out to 13 points, 27-14, Braxton earned another physical basket at 4:59. Ulasewicz made it two consecutive field goals for Navy and it was a 29-18 game with 4:21 left in the quarter. Unfortunately for the Mids they were stricken with another long scoreless drought as the Raiders netted the final nine points of the quarter.
 
Coming out of the halftime intermission down 38-18, Navy scored the first five points of the third quarter, all coming from Llewellyn in a matter of 1:44. The teams alternated field goals for the next four minutes with Colgate taking a lead of 17 only to see Navy come right back and cut its deficit to 15. The Mids' offense continued clicking in the second half of the quarter. With the score 44-29 and 4:41 remaining in the period, Navy tallied 11 more points, five from Braxton, four from Ulasewicz and two from Llewellyn. During this final run of play, Colgate only netted five points to make it a 49-40 game through the conclusion of the third quarter. Navy shot 64.3 percent (9-14) from the field and 80.0 percent (4-5) from the foul line as the Mids outscored the Raiders, 22-11 in the stanza.
 
Navy tried valiantly to keep shaving points off its deficit as the fourth quarter opened with the Mids scoring five of the first nine points to trail by just eight, 53-45. Llewellyn put the exclamation mark on this small run with a three-pointer at 8:17. This would be as close as Navy would get for the rest of regulation as Colgate built its lead back out to double digits on the next possession. While the Mids found some success on offense, the Raiders always had an answer down the stretch as they held on for the 65-53 victory.
 
For the game, Colgate outshot Navy, 37.7 percent (23-61) to 33.9 (21-62) from the field and 33.3 percent (5-15) to 5.6 (1-18) from three-point range. The Mids were successful from the foul line at an 83.3 percent (10-12) clip versus a 77.8 (14-18) mark for the Raiders.
 
Bolstered by 18 combined rebounds from Braxton and Gatzounas, Navy won the rebounding battle on Saturday, 43-38. Both Midshipmen finished with nine boards. The Mids also corralled 16 offensive rebounds during the contest.
 
"Sophie is such a good athlete," said Pemper. "She makes so many plays and is so balanced and coordinated. She knows her way around the rim so well. Montana was great too. When she got into foul trouble that was tough, but [Abby] Schubiger had something to do with that. She's [Schubiger] playing like an all-conference player so she was a tough matchup and drew a few of those fouls on Montana."
 
Defensively, Navy forced Colgate into 10 turnovers and was credited with eight steals. Ulasewicz (3), Llewellyn (2) and Morgan Taylor (Sr., Evans, Ga.) (2) all finished with multiple thefts. The Raiders' defensive pressure caused 19 turnovers by the Mids.
 
Navy will be back in action on the road on Wednesday with a 6 p.m. tilt at Bucknell University.