ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Coming off consecutive come-from-behind victories, the Navy women's basketball team was unable to find that magic on Tuesday night as the Mids fell 76-52 in a non-conference contest to Fairfield at Alumni Hall. Leading midway through the second quarter over the Stags (3-2), the Mids (2-3) had no answer for the visitors over the next 20-plus minutes as Fairfield pulled away for the 24-point victory at Alumni Hall.
 
Jennifer Coleman (Sr., Richmond, Va.) and Kolbi Green (Sr., Baltimore, Md.) paced Navy's effort as the duo combined for 26 points with 13 each. Coleman bolstered her statline with 14 rebounds and six rebounds over 39 minutes of action. The double-double was her fourth of 2021-22 and the 20th of her career. Green led the Mids with three three-pointers and two steals in 36 minutes.
 
"They're a good basketball team," remarked head coach Tim Taylor about Fairfield. "They put on a clinic tonight, they passed it extremely well and they shot it well. We hadn't seen them shoot it that well all year. One of the things we focused on was controlling who was taking shots for them outside of Lopez-Senechal and those players were still making shots. You can look at the stats, we each took the same number of shots, they just made 12 more, that's the story of the game.
 
"We were getting the shots we wanted tonight we just didn't make them. We tried to run every option that we could and we got open looks, we just didn't convert. That was the one thing we knew coming into tonight was that we needed to be able to shoot the three. Our goal was to make 10 threes tonight and we went 6-of-32."
 
Fairfield and the MAAC Preseason Player of the Year, Lou Lopez-Senechal dominated the early action on Tuesday night as the forward netted the first seven points of the game to go up 7-0 within two minutes. After this initial burst by the visitors the momentum swung back to Navy as the hosts scored 11 of the next 14 points to pull ahead 11-10 by the 4:17 mark. Green was the early sparkplug for the Mids as she recorded eight of those points on three consecutive possessions, all via Coleman assists. The back-and forth competition continued over the last four-plus minutes of the stanza as Fairfield took a slight 15-13 lead into the quarter break.
 
Navy charged out of the gate in the second quarter and quickly re-took the lead at 21-20 within the first three minutes as Coleman and Kristina Donza (So., Jackson, N.J.) each tallied three points, while Darryl Langford (Sr., Fayetteville, Ga.) added the third basket for Navy. The game stayed at a one-point margin for the next two-plus minutes with each side adding five points to their respective ledger. With the score 26-25 in favor of Navy with 4:46 left in the quarter, Fairfield closed the period with an emphatic 13-4 run to take a 38-30 advantage at halftime.
 
That span of strong play continued for the Stags coming out of the intermission as the visitors opened on a 15-0 run over the first 5:56 of play in the third quarter. A crisp connection between Sydne Watts (So., Canton, Ga.) and a cutting Coleman on the baseline helped Navy put an end to Fairfield's run and make it a 53-32 game. The Mids' offense got on course in the final two minutes of the quarter and scored 10 points, unfortunately for their cause, the Stags were fairly proficient as well and countered with six points. Three-pointers by Donza and Green highlighted Navy's output in this closing segment.
 
Beginning the fourth quarter with Fairfield ahead 61-42, Navy was unable to mount one of its patented comeback rallies and only drew within 17 twice in the period, at 9:23 following a pair of free throws by Watts and 8:48 when Langford found Watts for a mid-range jumper. The Mids shot just 3-of-16 from the field and 0-for-7 from three-point range in the fourth. The Stags won the final stanza, 15-10 and took the victory, 76-52.
 
For the game, Fairfield outshot Navy, 49.2 percent (32-65) to 30.8 (20-65) from the field and 44.4 percent (8-18) to 18.8 (6-32) from three-point territory. Both teams shot well from the foul line in limited opportunities as the Mids went 6-7 and the Stags went 4-5.
 
Led by Coleman's game-high 14 rebounds, Navy edged Fairfield in the rebounding battle, 40-38. The Mids also held a seven-board advantage in offensive caroms, 14-7.
 
Fairfield was extremely clean with its ballhandling on Tuesday night as the Stags were credited with 19 assists and just six turnovers. Navy also had a positive ratio with 15 assists and 13 turnovers.
 
Navy will take a short break to celebrate Thanksgiving before getting back on the hardwood this weekend with the 2021 Navy Classic. Welcoming a talented field of Bowling Green, George Mason and Liberty, the Mids will go head-to-head with the Flames on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. before setting their sights on the Patriots on Sunday in a 3:15 p.m. matchup. Admission will be free for all four games of the Navy Classic at Alumni Hall.