ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team battled for 40 minutes with service academy bragging rights on the line on Saturday and came away with a dramatic 61-60 victory over Army. Down one with less than 10 seconds to play, the Mids (6-12, 3-5 PL) came up with a loose ball following a blocked shot and saw Jennifer Coleman drive the lane before getting the ball to Lindsay Llewellyn for an uncontested 10-foot jumper for the go-ahead basket with four seconds remaining. One last stand by Navy at the buzzer clinched the one-point win over the Black Knights (8-8, 3-4 PL) to the enjoyment of the home fans at Alumni Hall.
 
Close throughout, Saturday's contest, that was viewed nationally on CBS Sports Network, saw the teams swap the lead on 12 different occasions, while tying eight other times. No team had greater than an eight-point lead the entire game.
 
Jennifer Coleman (Sr., Richmond, Va.), Sydne Watts (So., Canton, Ga.) and Lindsay Llewellyn (Jr., North East, Md.) led Navy's offensive effort against Army as the trio combined for 48 points. Coleman netted a game-high 22 points to go along with 10 rebounds for her 13th double-double of the season. The senior played a pivotal role in the Mids' second half comeback as she recorded 12 consecutive points in the third quarter to give Navy a three-point lead by the end of the period. Watts was a consistent threat in the second half as well as she netted 10 of her 16 overall points. Llewellyn rounded out the group of leading scorers as she finished with 10 points on five-of-nine shooting.
 
"That was a heavyweight fight," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "They threw punches and we threw punches. It was a game of runs. At the end, it came down to who was going to make the last big play. We had a bunch of important hustle plays that probably won't show up in the stats, but Ciera Hertelendy made a winning play by getting her hand on the loose ball after Jenn's shot and then feeding her for that drive. Right after that on the defensive end, Alisa Fallon got a really good move on Jenn and had a look, but CC was right there, in the right place for the denial. I trust her [CC] to be in the right place at the right time. We made one more play at the end. That's how one-point games are decided.
 
"We had an All-American performance from Jenn in the third quarter. We put in a play earlier in the week, that we thought could get her some open looks and we kept running it. She put the team on her back and carried us with 12 straight points when we needed it the most."
 
The action on Saturday started evenly, as the contest was tied at 10-10 five minutes into the first quarter. Ciera Hertelendy (Sr., Inwood, W.Va.) was the early catalyst for the Mids as she opened two-for-two over the first 57 seconds. Llewellyn was also effective early as she scored four points during this stretch. Over the next two minutes, each squad added one basket to advance the score to 12-12 by the 3:00 mark. Army responded with its longest scoring run of the game as the next three possessions saw the Black Knights hit three consecutive shots to break out to a 19-12 lead. A Watts jumper with five seconds left tightened the margin to five points at the conclusion of the first period.
 
Coming out for the second quarter with Army ahead 19-14, the visiting Black Knights scored the first three points of the stanza to go up eight. That advantage was the largest of the game for Army as Navy would be in comeback mode for the next 26-plus minutes. An 8-0 run by the Mids between 6:07 and 4:28 quickly evened the score at 22-22. Coleman registered five of those points, including three from the foul line. The final 3:37 of the first half saw the teams battle nearly even as the Black Knights scored five points, while the Mids countered with four. Morganne Andrews (So., Martinsburg, W.Va.) was the spark for Navy during this stretch with all four points to go along with four rebounds.
 
With Army leading 27-26 following 20 minutes of play, Navy quickly jumped back ahead in the third quarter when Mimi Schrader (Jr., Plymouth, Minn.) found Andrews for a mid-range jumper at 8:20. The lead bounced between the two sides over the next three possessions as the Black Knights went up 32-30 by the 6:49 juncture. Cleaning up the offensive glass, Llewellyn grabbed the carom and sank a putback layup to knot the game on the following possession. With the score 32-32 at 6:38, Army netted six unanswered points to pull back into the lead. With her team skidding, Coleman ran off an impressive stretch of play as she scored the game's next 12 points, including back-to-back three-pointers at 2:23 and 1:29 to make it 44-38. With less than a minute to go, Watts made her first triple of the game to help Navy hold onto its six-point lead, 47-41. A buzzer-beating three-pointer by Army's Sam McNaughton tightened the score to 47-44 through three quarters of action.
 
The close back-and-forth play carried over into the fourth as the Black Knights were able to go up 54-51 at 6:01. Watts' keen marksmanship from distance came through on the ensuing possession as Llewellyn found her on the wing for a successful three-pointer to re-tie the game. Each team had an answer for each other as the 54-54 score slowly crept along to a 58-58 score by the 1:34 mark. A made free throw by Coleman gave the host Mids a one-point lead. The Black Knights' leading scorer coming into the game, Alisa Fallon powered her way into the paint 35 seconds later to put Army ahead 60-59. A turnover on the Black Knights' second-to-last possession, set the scene that the 5,000-plus fans at Alumni Hall will not soon forget. With less than 10 seconds to go, Coleman found herself with the ball and shot a contested three-point shot that was blocked by Army's Kate Murray, but a lightning quick reaction by Hertelendy retrieved the loose ball and immediate found Coleman for a drive towards the hoop. Drawing a late defender that affected her handle, Coleman was able to usher the juggling ball towards a wide-open Llewellyn, who found nothing but the bottom of the net for her baseline jumper with four seconds left to play.
 
"The end was just like we drew it up," joked Coleman. "CC did a great job of hustling to the loose ball. She quickly got it to me; I started driving and saw a hole, but I started to lose the ball, it got to Lindsay. She was wide open and she knocked it down. That was a great shot by Lindsay! We always tell ourselves to be ready. The ball got to her and she was ready."
 
"Those are the kind of shots that I'm super comfortable with," remarked Llewellyn. "I had confidence when it left my hand and luckily it went in. I wasn't shooting too hot during the game, but I got that one and that's the one that counted."
 
With the score 61-60, the Mids had to withstand one final look by a potent Black Knights' offense. Army put the ball in Fallon's hands and the physical Black Knight guard drove the baseline, but was met by Hertelendy and threw up a wild, desperation shot that missed the hoop by a wide margin.
 
"CC and Morganne did a great job of walling up and defending down low all game," said Watts. "On that last play for Army, Fallon hit a wall; CC was there and she hit a wall. She did a great job on that," said Watts.
 
For the game, Navy outshot Army, 41.4 percent (24-58) to 31.7 (20-63) from the field, while the Black Knights held advantages over the Mids in three-point shooting, 26.1 percent (6-23) to 23.5 (4-17) and from the foul line, 77.8 percent (14-18) to 56.3 (9-16).
 
Army won the rebounding battle, 49-to-35 as four of the Black Knights' starters had seven or more caroms. Army also collected more offensive rebounds by a 20-to-10 over Navy. Coleman grabbed 10 rebounds for the Mids with Andrews backing her up with seven rebounds of her own off the bench.
 
Navy's ballhandling was on-point on Saturday as the Mids had a 12-to-11 assist-to-turnover ratio as Coleman and Llewellyn each had three helpers.
 
"The crowd was great," exclaimed Taylor. "You love having that type of energy in the arena for your kids. That's why they're playing college basketball; to play in that type of atmosphere and to play against a rival like Army. That was a special moment for the entire team out there. I'm so excited for them to have that opportunity. I told them earlier today, 'you only get certain moments, you've got to take those moments and seize what you want. Go take it, don't wait for it.' They did that today. I'm so excited for this team!"
 
Navy will be back at home with a mid-week showdown with Bucknell on Wednesday night. Tip-off between the Mids and Bison is set for 7 p.m. at Alumni Hall.