BALTIMORE – Playing its first game in 20 days at Loyola on Saturday afternoon, the Navy women's basketball team started out a bit slow, but quickly found its comfort zone on the court and shot an impressive 58 percent over the final three quarters, including 72.7 percent from the field in a 20-point third quarter. All of this hot shooting helped the Mids (3-6, 3-2 PL, 2-1 PL South) defeat the Greyhounds (0-7, 0-7 PL, 0-3 PL South) by a score of 69-60 at Reitz Arena.
 
The backcourt duo of Kolbi Green (Jr., Baltimore, Md.) and Jennifer Coleman (Jr., Richmond, Va.) were dominant as they accounted for 51 of the team's points on Saturday. Green set her career-high with 26 points on nine of 15 shooting from the line and a seven of nine showing at the foul line. Green added six rebounds, four assists and four steals in 39 minutes of action. Coleman was right there with her junior classmate as she registered 25 points on 11 of 19 shooting, while grabbing 15 rebounds and three steals. Her 25 points tied a career-high, while her rebound total was one off her career-best.

"You could really see where the layoff affected us early in the game," remarked Navy head coach Tim Taylor. "To most observers you wouldn't have noticed it, but we really struggled to be in the right spots and Loyola did a great job early of changing defense and making us stagnant. I felt like we were playing our first game of the season. Our team showed tremendous resiliency in battling through missed shots and our intensity on defense ratcheted up in the last part of the second quarter.

"Obviously, Jenn and Kolbi were tremendous today. They played both ends of the court and really fed off each other. They hit big shot after big shot. It's really exciting to see their growth."
 
The contest on Saturday started slow and evenly as the game was 6-6 through the first 5:07 of play. The back-and-forth action continued over the ensuing three-plus minutes as Loyola edged ahead by one, 11-10. Green was the early catalyst for Navy with six of the team's first 10 points. The Greyhounds increased its lead out to four points before a late Coleman basket made it 14-12 after 10 minutes of play.
 
Leading by two points to start the second quarter, the host Greyhounds opened the stanza with an 8-0 run over the first 3:23 to grab the game's first double-digit advantage. Coming out of a timeout, Coleman called her own number as she took a pass from the wing, used some slick dribbling to shed her defender before nailing a step-back jumper. The talented junior guard drew Navy within six at 22-16 with a running layup at 4:55. The Mids' continued their fiery comeback with eight of the next 10 points over a run of 2:22 to even the score at 24-24. Green scored her seventh straight point to push the visitors ahead at 1:47, 27-25. After the combination of Green (9) and Coleman (6) netted the first 15 points of the quarter for Navy, Ciera Hertelendy (Jr., Inwood, W.Va.) and Sophie Gatzounas (Sr., South Hadley, Mass.) scored their first points in the period with three in the final 39 seconds to help Navy take a 30-29 lead into the halftime intermission. In their 18-point quarter, the Mids shot 50.0% from the field, 8-16.
 
Navy kept up its scotching shooting from the floor as the Mids hit six shots in a row from 8:49 to 4:33 to increase their lead up to nine, 45-36. Coleman was in the middle of this hot streak with seven points and two more assists. Gatzounas also started finding her offensive footing with layups 65 seconds apart. Green made it a seven-for-seven run for Navy with a layup and and-one conversion at 2:59. This old-fashion three-point play gave the Mids their first double-digit lead of the game, 48-36. After Loyola pulled within seven points following a Delaney Connelly layup at 1:16, Morganne Andrews (Fr., Martinsburg, W.Va.) came through with a clutch jumper as the shot clock buzzer rang out at 0:43. That closed the scoring in the third at 50-41. As a team, Navy made eight of its 11 field goal attempts.
 
The hosts tried to mount a comeback in the earlier portion of the fourth quarter with a short-lived 5-2 run to make it 52-46 at 8:30. As quickly as the Greyhounds drew closer, the Mids responded with seven unanswered points courtesy of a pair of Coleman field goals and a three-pointer from the wing by Lindsay Llewellyn (So., North East, Md.). Ahead by a game-high 13 points, 59-46 with 5:01 remaining, Navy was able to withstand the final charge by Loyola as twice the Greyhounds cut their deficit six points, 61-55 at 3:15 and 66-60 at 0:25. The Green-Coleman combo provided all of the offense that the Mids would need to hold onto the victory as Green made six free throws and Coleman a pair of baskets. Those points helped Green set a new career-high, while Coleman tied her best single-game performance.
 
In the 69-60 victory, Navy outshot Loyola, 49.1 percent (28-57) to 37.0 (22-58) from the field, though the Greyhounds were able to hold advantages in three-point shooting, 35.0 percent (7-20) to 18.8 (3-16) and foul shooting, 69.2 percent (9-13) to 66.7 (10-15).
 
The Mids were dominant on both ends of court in the rebounding battle as they corralled 15 more caroms, 43-28, with a 33-23 margin on the defensive glass and a 10-5 lead in offensive boards. Coleman grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds, barely missing her career-high of 16 (Feb. 13, 2019 at Holy Cross). Andrews and Gatzounas tied for second on Navy with seven rebounds each. In addition to her career-high 26 points, Green added a career-best six rebounds on Saturday.
   
Defensively, Navy forced Loyola into 14 turnovers and were credited with 11 steals. Green (4), Coleman (3) and Gatzounas (2) all recorded multiple thefts.

"The biggest challenge we now face will be trying to get in recovery and be fresh tomorrow," said Taylor in closing. "I told Kelsey [Wolfe] and Regyn [Davis-Young] (Navy's strength & conditioning coach and athletic trainer) they become the MVP's tonight."
 
The Mids and Greyhounds will conclude their weekend home-and-home series on Sunday afternoon in Annapolis with a 3 p.m. tip-off set for Alumni Hall.