ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team found itself in a 40-minute battle against local league foe American on Wednesday night. An early eight-point differential at the end of one quarter of play gave the visiting Eagles (7-20, 6-10 PL) a lead that they wouldn't yield to the Mids (1-26, 1-15 PL) for the remaining 30 minutes of action at Alumni Hall as they eventually walked away with a 61-49 victory.
 
Morganne Andrews (Martinsburg, W.Va.) played a leading role in Navy's efforts on Wednesday as the junior forward grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds, including six on the offensive end. Andrews added six points, two assists and one block to round out her final line. Lindsay Llewellyn (Sr., North East, Md.) bolstered the Mids' offensive output with a team-high 15 points.
 
"Everything we were running tonight was working and we were getting open shots, especially in the second half, but gosh, the ball wouldn't go in," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "We missed a few layups early and missed a few chances to play our posts better because of bad passes. We had so many shots; we had nine more shots than they did tonight, but so many just rolled in and out. I've never seen anything like it. I thought our kids played well tonight. We executed offensively and we minimized our turnovers, but we didn't have an answer when they went on a little run playing the ball through the paint, they were able to stretch it out a little bit."
 
The game opened with a heavy American flavor to it as the visitors recorded the first six points over the initial four minutes of play. A strong skip pass from Kate Samson (Fr., Richmond, Va.) to Llewellyn beyond the arc in the corner resulted in Navy cutting its deficit in half at 5:26. The three-point shot proved pivotal to the Mids' first quarter offensive effort as a Maren Louridas (Fr., Delmar, N.Y.) trey at 3:12 drew the hosts back within four, 10-6 before a late Sam Schofield (Jr., Maumee, Ohio) long range field goal closed the first period's score at 17-9.
 
Trailing by eight points, Navy immediately got back within four points with quick baskets by Llewellyn and Sydne Watts (Jr., Canton, Ga.) over the first two minutes of play. With the score 17-13 at 8:03, the teams traded field goals over the next six minutes as the scoreboard slowly increased to a 23-19 mark by 2:12. A 4-0 run to close the quarter by American left Navy down by eight at halftime, 27-19.
 
Llewellyn sparked the Mids to start the third when Mimi Schrader (Sr., Plymouth, Minn.) drove the lane and kicked out to the left wing where Llewellyn sank her second trey of the game. After a Sadie Stetson basket the next time down the court for American, Andrews shrunk Navy's deficit back to five, 29-24, with an athletic offensive rebound and quick put-back at 8:26. Unfortunately for the Mids an 11-4 run over the next seven-plus minutes increased the Eagles' lead out to 12, 40-28. A swap of field goals over the final 30 seconds, two by Navy and one by American left the Mids down 10, 42-32 through three quarters.
 
Navy continued fighting and aimed to draw within single-digits throughout the entire fourth quarter. Andrews' third successful field goal of the game made it a 44-34 score at 7:42. After a 10-2 run by American, Navy shot its way back into the contest on the strength of three-point baskets by Schrader and Schofield at 3:01 and 0:54, respectively. Down 12, Navy couldn't edge closer as both teams made one final basket over the concluding 20 seconds of play.
 
"You can always count on our team to work hard and give it their all for 40 minutes," commented Taylor about Navy's effort on Wednesday. "We fought all the way through tonight. We had the shots. 'How many balls rimmed in and out; a lot of those at crucial times?' We had a layup roll out and they [American] come down the other end and hit a three; that's a five-point swing."
 
For the game, American outshot Navy, 43.1 percent (25-58) to 29.9 (20-67) from the field and 36.4 percent (4-11) to 21.2 (7-33) from three-point range. Neither team had much success from the foul line with the Mids making 66.6 percent (2-3) of their shots versus 63.6 percent (7-11) for the Eagles.
 
A quartet of American players with seven rebounds helped the hosts hold a 43-40 advantage over Navy on Wednesday night. Andrews was a dominant force for the Mids as she grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds. In her two matchups against American this season, she's recorded a total of 36 rebounds.
 
"You can really see the growth in Morganne this year," remarked Taylor. "From day one to now, she's consistently getting better. Her offensive game is improving; getting six-to-eight points a game. If she keeps working, she'll be getting into that double-double range. She does a great job of pursuing the basketball. You can see her crashing and going up. She's catching the ball at its peak. She's going over people to get rebounds."
 
Navy will play its final road game of the regular season on Saturday with a tilt in Hamilton, N.Y. versus Colgate. Tip-off between the Mids and Raiders is set for 2 p.m.