ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Playing its second game in as many days, the Navy women's basketball team completed its weekend sweep of the Loyola Greyhounds with a 50-46 win on Sunday afternoon at Alumni Hall. Down one at halftime, the Mids (4-6, 4-2 PL, 3-1 PL South) outscored the Greyhounds (0-8, 0-8 PL, 0-4 PL South) 16-6 in the third quarter to take a lead into the fourth that eventually expanded out to 14 before a furious rally by the visitors shrunk the margin to just two points with 32 seconds remaining. The gutsy Mids put away the Greyhounds and clinched the victory with two free throws down the stretch. The win puts Navy into a tie with American atop the Patriot League South division as both teams are 3-1.
 
The dynamic backcourt duo of Jennifer Coleman (Jr., Richmond, Va.) and Kolbi Green (Jr., Baltimore, Md.), who combined for 51 of the Mids' 69 points on Saturday against the Greyhounds, were at the forefront once again on Sunday as they notched 28 of Navy's 50 total points. Coleman registered her fourth straight double-double as she scored 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting with 14 rebounds, five assists and one steal in 37 minutes of action. Green sparked Navy's third quarter comeback with a trio of three-pointers on her way to 13 points in 35 minutes. She added a career-high eight rebounds along with three assists and a team-high three steals. Morganne Andrews (Fr., Martinsburg, W.Va.) gave Navy 20 minutes of key work off the bench with a career-high nine points and four rebounds.
 
"Hats off to Loyola, they never quit today," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "The game of basketball is so much about momentum. When they scored and we immediately turned it over on the in-bounds and they scored it for a quick four points, you could see their energy level go up and our's go down; we got tight and started doing things that we don't normally do in those last four minutes. We played well in spurts today. It's hard to win in this league, especially when you're trying to win back-to-back.
 
"Our third quarter was huge. They punched us in the mouth early in both games this weekend and the key was getting it close at halftime. We came out in the third and locked them down defensively. One of the keys we talked about was to win the rebounding battle, as well as winning it on the defensive end. That was what we talked about at halftime because I felt we had some breakdowns in the first half with that. Kolbi hitting those three-pointers jump-started us and helped boost our energy. We'll take today's result and move on; hopefully we'll learn from it too."
 
The game opened slowly, but evenly as both team netted four points over the first four minutes. From the point at 6:00 when it was 4-4, the visiting Greyhounds rattled off seven straight points to build out an 11-4 lead by the 4:47 mark. Coleman ended that scoreless drought for the Mids with an offensive rebound and putback at 4:08. Coleman called her own number on the next possession as she grabbed a steal and went coast-to-coast for the fastbreak pull-up. Navy continued fighting back as the hosts shut out Loyola for the remainder of the period, while tallying four points of its own to go ahead 12-11 at the quarter intermission.
 
The second quarter opened similar to the first as the Greyhounds scored 11 of the first 13 points to jump out to a 22-14 lead by the 6:34 point of the stanza. A baseline jumper by Andrews off of a Lindsay Llewellyn (So., North East, Md.) pass helped Navy get back in the scoring column at 5:56. After Loyola responded with a three-pointer to go up 25-16, Navy closed out the quarter strongly once again as the Mids silenced the Greyhounds' offense, while carving eight points of their deficit. Andrews and Sophie Gatzounas (Sr., South Hadley, Mass.) combined for six of those eight points with Gatzounas emphatically sinking a three-pointer from the wing at 1:13.
 
Coming out of the locker room with Loyola ahead 25-24, Navy immediately shot into the lead as first time down the court Gatzounas cut towards the lane and found Green wide open at the top of the arch for a three-pointer. Another trey by Green at 8:08 pushed Navy ahead 30-25. The Greyhounds finally ended their 8:27 scoreless streak when Emily McAteer sank a jumper at 6:06. Over the next two minutes, the combination of another Andrews field goal and a Green three-ball gave the Mids their then-largest lead of the game, eight, 35-27 at 4:06. Over the final four-plus minutes of the quarter the action was nearly even with Navy scoring five points, all courtesy of Coleman, and Loyola tallying four of its own. For the quarter, the Mids outscored the Greyhounds, 16-6 and held the visitors to just 18.2 percent shooting on 2-of-11.       
 
With the score 40-31 through three quarters of play, Navy received baskets from Llewellyn and Coleman on consecutive possessions to go up 13, 44-31 by 7:42. The teams traded points over the next two minutes as Gatzounas increased the Mids' lead to 14, 46-32. From that spot in the game at 6:05 the Greyhounds rattled off 10 unanswered points over the ensuing 3:00 of play to draw within four, 46-42. Green, the Mids' catalyst in the third period, came through in the clutch once again as she ended this run with a layup at 2:47. With the score, 48-44, Ciera Hertelendy (Jr., Inwood, W.Va.) came through with a key defensive stand for Navy as Loyola looked to edge even closer when she blocked an Isabella Therien shot at the end of the shot clock at 1:15. Hertelendy showed her guile on the offensive end to clinch the victory for the Mids as she calmly sank a pair of free throws with four seconds remaining to turn a two-point margin into the eventual 50-46 win.
 
For the game, Navy outshot Loyola, 33.9 percent (21-62) to 29.6 percent (16-54), though the visiting Greyhounds held slight advantages from three-point range and the foul line with a 26.3 percent (5-19) to 17.4 percent (4-23) margin from three and an 81.8 percent (9-11) to 66.7 percent (4-6) edge from the charity stripe.
 
For the second straight contest, Navy dominated the rebounding battle versus Loyola as the Mids grabbed a season-high 46 boards, 12 more than the Greyhounds. Navy also snared seven more offensive rebounds, 16-9. Coleman, Gatzounas and Green bolstered the Mids' rebounding corps with 31 combined boards; 14 for Coleman, nine for Gatzounas and eight for Green.
 
"We're an undersized team so we have to win the rebounding battle with grit and determination," said Taylor. "We showed that for three and a half quarters. At the end, we struggled a little bit and it looked like they had a little bit more want because the energy flipped to them. We'll learn from this."
 
Coleman closed out her line score on Sunday with a team-high five assists. As a squad, the Mids had 16 assists on their 21 baskets against the Greyhounds.
 
"Jenn affected the game when she wasn't scoring today," said Taylor. "She didn't take bad shots and then she found people, who had better looks. She did a great job of finding others. Morganne was one of those players that benefited from her play-making; Morganne kept us in the game in the second quarter. We had been waiting for that break-out from her, especially with Sydne [Watts] out today. It's a shame we didn't have Sydne as she had been dominant in practice these past couple of weeks, I want to commend her on how she had been practicing. Without her today, we need somebody to step up and Morganne did that."
 
Navy will have another quick turnaround as their eight-game sprint to the end of the Patriot League season will see it host Lafayette on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Alumni Hall. The matchup between the Mids and Leopards will be the third of eight games for Navy in a span of 15 days.