PRINCESS ANNE, Md. – Playing its first road game in three-plus weeks, the Navy women's basketball team put forth a hard-fought effort on Sunday in a tight defeat to Maryland Eastern Shore. Trailing by two points with less than a minute to play, the Mids (2-7) were unable to pull ahead of the host Hawks (4-4), who went 3-4 from the foul line down the stretch at Hytche Arena to earn the 66-61 victory.
 
Jennifer Coleman (Sr., Richmond, Va.) was everywhere for Navy on Sunday as she tied her career-high with 30 points on 9-19 shooting from the field, 4-5 from three-point range and 8-10 at the foul line. Additionally, she tied her season-high with 14 rebounds and grabbed a season-best seven steals on defense over 38 minutes of action. Starting for the first time this season, Lindsay Llewellyn (Jr., North East, Md.) was the second-highest scorer for Navy with 13 points on three successful three-pointers. Kristina Donza (So., Jackson, N.J.) also hit a trio of three-pointers off the bench for the Mids on Sunday.

"Tough loss today as our players battled until the end," said head coach Tim Taylor. "The frustrating part is we had chances at the end but could not come up with a play when we needed it and they hit big shots.

"I though Jenn was excellent and Lindsay and Kristina gave us a lift in the second half when we went to a five-guard lineup. We need to get more production out of our post game on both ends of the floor."
 
Both teams started the game fast on the offensive end as it was 5-3 in favor of Eastern Shore through 91 seconds of play. The Mids' basket was three-pointer courtesy of Llewellyn at 8:29. Unfortunately for the visitors, their scoring touch went silent for the next 5:19 until Coleman tallied a pair of free throws at 2:48. During that cold stretch, the Hawks expanded their lead out to 10-3. Coleman's free throws set off a strong individual end of the period as she recorded the next four points for Navy and the Mids went into the quarter break down 12-9.
 
Invigorated by the last three minutes of the first quarter, Coleman continued her efficient scoring pace as she netted five points in Navy's first two possessions to make it a 15-14 score in favor of Eastern Shore. The teams traded baskets over the next two-plus minutes before the Mids pushed ahead for the first time on Sunday with a Coleman jumper at 5:24. Trailing 20-19, the Hawks scored the next 10 of the next 14 points to re-take the lead 29-24 with 2:08 left in the half. Coleman rounded out her 12-point individual quarter with five points over a two-possession stretch to even the score at 29-29 with 1:14 left. A late free throw conversion by Savanna Lewis (Fr., Los Lunas, N.M.) gave Navy the 30-29 lead heading into halftime.
 
Maryland Eastern Shore opened the second half quickly and made three of its first four shots to jump back into the lead 36-30 by the 8:26 mark of the third quarter. After the Hawks added three more points to increase it's initial run to 10-0, Coleman got Navy back in the scoring column with an offensive rebound and put-back to make it 39-32 at 6:55. Eastern Shore got right back to adding to its lead as it netted five more unanswered points to go up a game-high 12 points. From that point at 5:36, Navy strung together a 12-3 run to draw within three points at 47-44 at 1:02. Three-pointers by Coleman, Llewellyn and Donza highlighted this streak. One free throw by the Hawks with 23 seconds left in the quarter completed the scoring at 48-44.
 
The three-point shot continued falling for the Mids in the early part of the fourth quarter as Donza hit her second trey in as many quarters in Navy's second possession. Less than a minute later at 8:27, Mimi Schrader (Jr., Plymouth, Minn.) tied the game at 50-50 as she sank a pull-up jumper. The Mids were unable to re-take the lead as the momentum swung back to the Hawks as the Hawks netted 10 of the next 13 points. Behind 60-53 at 4:19, Coleman found the bottom of the net for her fourth three-pointer of the game. The contest stayed at a four-point margin until Llewellyn went 2-2 at the foul line with 1:22 remaining in regulation to make it a 61-59 score. After a pair of Eastern Shore free throws, Llewellyn cut Navy's deficit back to two points, 63-61 with 56 second left. Unfortunately for the visitors from Annapolis, the Hawks tallied the final three points of the game to lock up the 66-61 non-conference victory.
 
For the game, Maryland Eastern Shore outshot Navy, 45.3 percent (24-53) to 29.2 (19-65) from the field, though the Mids outshot the Hawks from three-point range, 32.3 percent (10-31) to 28.6 (4-14) and at the foul line, 65.0 percent (13-20) to 53.8 (14-26). The 10 made three-pointers tied the team's season-high that was initially set against Georgetown on Nov. 9.
 
Navy won the rebounding battle over Eastern Shore, 47-38 as the Mids' starting backcourt of Coleman and Schrader combined to grab 23 rebounds with Coleman tying her season-high with 14 boards, while Schrader came down with a career-best nine caroms. Navy also out-paced Eastern Shore in offensive rebounds, 23-12. Coleman and Schrader each had seven offensive caroms.
 
All nine players that appeared in Sunday's game registered at least one assist as Navy finished with 12 assists on 19 made field goals.
 
Defensively, Coleman came away with seven steals, the highest by a Navy player since she recorded eight steals at Clemson on Nov. 9, 2019.
 
Navy will wrap up its non-conference slate next Sunday when the team travels to Rider University. Tip-off between the Mids and Broncs is set for 2 p.m. at Alumni Gymnasium in Lawrenceville, N.J.