ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team advanced to the second round of the 2022 Patriot League Tournament on Saturday with a come-from-behind 60-55 victory over Colgate. Seeded eighth in the tournament, the Mids (9-20) trailed the ninth-seeded Raiders (6-24) for nearly 20 minutes, including at 54-53 with two minutes to go in the fourth quarter before closing out the win with a clutch 7-1 run.  
 
Jennifer Coleman (Sr., Richmond, Va.) came out on a mission on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Hall as scored the Mids' first 11 points on her way to a game-high 29 on 10-of-21 shooting from the field and a 7-of-10 outing at the foul line. Additionally, she grabbed nine rebounds and two steals, while assisting on eight made baskets. The duo of Lindsay Llewellyn (Jr., North East, Md.) and Sydne Watts (So., Canton, Ga.) aided Navy's cause with 10 points each.
 
"I thought the first three minutes of the third quarter changed the entire game for us," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "There wasn't a lot of crispness to the first half. It had the feeling of a first-to-50 kind of game. We got two hard-fought offensive rebounds and scored the first seven points. We finished with 17 offensive rebounds today, that was huge for us. Individually, Jenn had so many big moments for us throughout the game, but she was especially clutch late. She put on a Player of the Year performance this afternoon.
 
"Hats off to Colgate, they made some really good adjustments during the game. They found ways to get the ball in deep to Sophia Diehl and took advantage of that. Towards the end of the game, we stopped switching and started playing them straight up. I felt that that change allowed us to get in better spots defensively late."
 
The action on Saturday opened evenly and slowly with each squad netting six points over the initial six-plus minutes in Annapolis. A brief 5-0 run by Colgate helped the visitors break out to an 11-6 lead by the 3:09 mark. Scoring all six of those early points, Coleman added three more as she brought Navy within a basket with a three-pointer at 2:03. With the score 11-9, the Raiders closed the first period by registering five of the last seven points to take a 16-11 lead into the quarter break.
 
After Coleman netted all of the Mids' points in the first quarter, Kristina Donza (So., Jackson, N.J.) and Llewellyn lightened Coleman's load a bit to start the second period as they connected for a pair of a field goals over the opening two minutes. Trailing 19-15, Coleman made her presence known with a quick 5-0 individual run as she started her streak with a steal and breakaway layup before coming back on the next possession and nailing a three-pointer from the top of the arch. The Raiders had a rebuttal for Coleman's effort and recorded seven of the next nine points to flip the score from 20-19 Navy to 26-22 Colgate by the 1:37 mark. A free throw by Coleman with 51 seconds left concluded the first half with a 26-23 score in favor of the visitors.
 
In a three-minute run of play that Taylor regarded as a turning point, Navy opened the second half on a 7-0 run. The Mids' never-quit effort was on full display as Coleman drew an offensive foul on Colgate's Taylor Langan on the Raiders' first possession before Llewellyn tied the game at 26-26 with a three-pointer at 9:02. Another basket by Llewellyn, a fast-break layup off of a Coleman defensive rebound and dish, put the Mids ahead by two. The run culminated with a block by Llewellyn and a 40-second possession that included offensive rebounds by Watts and Donza and two successful free throws by Ciera Hertelendy (Sr., Inwood, W.Va.) at 7:02. A three-pointer by Colgate ended that run before Navy countered with an offensive rebound and putback by Coleman and a crisp series of passes that found Donza wide open on the wing for a three-pointer. With the score 35-29, the Raiders fought back and evened the contest by 2:26 at 36-36. The game stayed close down the stretch in the third as Watts was a late spark for the Mids and scored all five of her team's points.
 
Tied 41-41 through 30 minutes of play, the two combatants continued fighting to extend their season as the score was tied at 43-43, 46-46, 48-48 and 50-50 through the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. Coleman netted a pair of go-ahead baskets for Navy during that initial run of play. Following another layup by Coleman and an immediate response by the Raiders' Taylor Golembiewski it was a 52-52 game with 3:45 left in regulation. The Mids briefly took a one-point lead for a minute before Colgate's Morgan McMahon gave the visitors a 54-53 lead at 2:24. A clutch jumper by Watts at 1:52 flipped Navy back into the lead before the Mids' defense reacted with a lockdown 30-second possession and forced Colgate into a shot clock violation. Coleman scored Navy's next four points to give the Mids a 59-54 lead with 19 seconds remaining. The Mids held onto that five-point advantage and clinched a berth in the Patriot League Quarterfinals with a 60-55 victory.
 
For the game, Colgate outshot Navy from the field, 44.7 percent (21-47) to 36.2 (21-58) and from the foul line, 72.7 percent (8-11) to 66.7 (12-18), though the Mids ended with a slight edge in three-point shooting, 37.5 percent (6-16) to 33.3 (5-15).
 
The rebounding battle was split right down the middle with both teams finishing with 35 boards. Navy held a significant advantage in offensive rebounds with a 17-10 margin. The Mids' backcourt was particularly active on the glass as Coleman and Donza finished with nine and seven rebounds, respectively. Of note, Watts grabbed a game-high four offensive rebounds.
 
Navy was especially crisp with its ball-handling on Saturday as the Mids posted a 12-to-8 assist-to-turnover ratio. Coleman recorded a game-high eight assists.
 
Defensively, Navy forced Colgate into 14 turnovers and were credited with six steals.
 
With Saturday's victory, Navy will advance into the quarterfinals of the 2022 Patriot League Tournament and face off with the top-seeded Holy Cross Crusaders on Monday night in Worcester, Mass. Tip-off at the Hart Center is scheduled for 7 p.m.

The Mids just played the Crusaders two weeks ago on Feb. 19 in Worcester and were within one point of the eventual regular season champion, 52-51, with two minutes to go before falling by a final of 63-57.
 
"We might only have nine wins this season, but with a few late game breaks we could easily be at 16 or 17 wins," said Taylor in closing. "We've really been in every conference game outside the two or three. Nearly every one has been a one or two possession game with two minutes to go. If we make a stop on defense or make a shot on offense it's a completely different outcome. We just need to keep fighting. I'm so proud of our kids because they kept believing, they didn't quit. That's the one thing from throughout this season; our team plays hard, they fight and most of all, they never quit."