WASHINGTON, D.C. – The 2019-20 regular season wrapped up for the Navy women's basketball team on Wednesday night with a 57-42 loss on the road at American University. Holding a 34-26 lead half way through the third quarter, the Mids (7-22, 2-16 PL) ran into a stiff Eagles' (12-16, 8-10 PL) defense that allowed just eight total points over the final 16-plus minutes of action at Bender Arena. This stretch of play allowed American to pull ahead and eventually away for the 15-point victory.
 
Mary Kate Ulasewicz (Sr., Doylestown, Pa.) spearheaded Navy's offense with 15 points on Wednesday night. The Mids' team captain knocked down three three-pointers, while going 4-4 from the free throw line in 35 minutes of play.
 
"We were playing a tough brand of defense over the first two and a half quarters," remarked head coach Stefanie Pemper. "We forced them into some bad shots, while we were hitting our shots, that helped us build that lead in the third quarter. Making shots is the name of the game and we didn't do that in the fourth; 1-10 is tough. 
 
"Their [American] defensive intensity picked up at the end of the third and into the fourth and we struggled. They went to a 2-2-1, three-quarter court defense. They forced us into bad shots and too many turnovers. We got sped up and out of the rhythm that was working for us through most of the first three quarters. Their offense fed off of their defense."
 
Offense was hard to come by during the early portion of the contest at Bender Arena as it was just 2-2 through the first four minutes of the game. Sophie Gatzounas (Jr., South Hadley, Mass.) recorded the Mids' first basket with a smooth post move during this opening stretch. The Eagles hit their stride first as the hosts scored 10 of the next 12 points to grab a 12-4 lead by the 2:52 mark of the first period. The three-ball helped Navy get back in the game immediately with consecutive three-pointers from Ulasewicz and Lindsay Llewellyn (Fr., North East, Md.) to make it 12-10. American outscored Navy, 5-2 over the final 68 seconds to hold a 17-12 advantage at the first quarter break.
 
Similar to the first stanza both teams struggled early to find their shot as the score slowly advanced to 18-14 over the initial four-plus minutes of the second quarter with only free throws falling for either squad. The first field goal the quarter came at 5:23 when Gatzounas got an offensive rebound and quick put back. Navy's comeback resulted in a tie less than a minute later when Ulasewicz drove the lane and athletically flipped the ball towards the rim to make it 18-18. The Mids' first lead came at 3:15 when Mimi Schrader (Fr., Plymouth, Minn.) pulled up for a mid-range jumper. American ended Navy's 8-0 run when the Eagles hit their first field goal of the quarter at 2:21 when Maddie Doring sank a three-pointer from the wing. Before that basket, the Eagles were 0-7 from the field. Another jumper by Schrader flipped the score back in Navy's favor, 22-21 before Schrader facilitated a Ulasewicz three-pointer with 58 seconds left. A late Taylor Brown three-pointer helped the hosts cut their deficit back to one, 25-24 before the break.
 
After American opened with the first two points of the second half to re-take the lead 26-25, Ulasewicz calmly came down the court and called her own number for a pull-up three-pointer from the top of the arc at 8:47. This sparked a 9-0 run as the Mids went up 34-26 by the 6:37 mark when Morgan Taylor (Sr., Evans, Ga.) drove the lane and banged home a physical layup. The momentum pendulum of the third quarter swung back in the Eagles' direction as the host squad scored 10 of the next 12 points over a 2:35 span of play to even the score 36-36 with 3:33 left in the third quarter. A pair of Brown free throws at 2:12 allowed the Eagles re-take the leave by two. Jasmine Bishop (Jr., Twinsburg, Ohio) got her name into the box score during the next possession with a mid-range jumper. With the score 38-38, American scored the last seven points of the quarter to take a 45-38 lead after 30 minutes of play. Overall, that was part of a 17-4 run over the final 6:08.
 
The cold shooting that plagued both teams in the first and second quarters reared its head again in the fourth quarter as the Eagles netted four points over the opening six-plus minutes, while the Mids tallied just one, a Laurel Jaunich (Sr., Charlotte, Vt.) free throw. Trailing 49-39, Maggie Moore (Fr., Ruffs Dale, Pa.) drew Navy within single-digits with a free throw of her own at 3:58. American didn't allow Navy to whittle its deficit any closer than nine the rest of the game as the Eagles immediately answered Moore's foul shot with back-to-back three-pointers to build out a 55-40 lead. Taylor ended Navy's long streak without a field goal with a jumper with 1:10 remaining. 
 
In the 57-42 contest, American outshot Navy, 38.0 percent (19-50) to 30.4 (14-46) from the field, as well as from three-point range, 40.9 percent (9-22) to 28.6 (4-14). The Mids held a slight 66.7 percent (10-15) to 62.5 percent (10-16) advantage in foul shooting.
 
Navy won the battle on boards significantly, 42-27. Both Gatzounas and Taylor had 11 rebounds each as Gatzounas nabbed five caroms off the offensive glass, while Taylor had four on the offensive end.
 
Defensively, the Mids turned the Eagles over nine times on Wednesday with five steals. Jaunich had a team-high two thefts.
 
"We absolutely have confidence going into Saturday's game," said Pemper. "They beat us on some action in their offense that they shouldn't have. The threes that they got late; the lid just came off the basket when they hit those. The best laid plans sometimes don't always work. They had a more complete second half. It wasn't anything we didn't expect, we'll be ready for Saturday."
 
The same two teams will meet again in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament on Saturday afternoon when the seventh-seeded Eagles host the tenth-seeded Midshipmen at 2 p.m. at Bender Arena. The winner of that game will advance to play the second-seeded Boston University Terriers on Monday night at 6 p.m. in Boston.