Ajan Caneda

Senior Writer

After staging two consecutive second half comebacks, the women’s basketball team couldn’t replicate the same performance against Navy, suffering a 61-40 defeat in Annapolis, Md. on Feb. 2. The Orange and Blue dropped to 13-9 overall, finishing the first half of Patriot League play with a 4-3 conference record.

Turnovers hindered the Bison in the first half as they gave up the ball six times in the first 10 minutes of play. The Orange and Blue did most of their scoring outside of the paint with all five of their three-pointers coming in the first half, including two from Katherine Harris ’15. Unfortunately, Navy kept pounding the ball inside, outscoring the Bison 22-10 in the paint. The score was 36-27 at the break.

“In both of our last two games we’ve dug ourselves a hole at the beginning that proved too hard to get out of. Both American and Navy pressured us and forced us into making more turnovers than we would like to at the beginning of the game,” Harris said.

Navy eventually regained a 10-point lead early in the second half, but the Bison were determined not to let the game slip away from them, as forwards Felicia Mgbada ’13 and Lindsay Horbatuck ’13 scored consecutive baskets to trim the lead to six. After a Navy three-pointer, the same duo scored two lay-ups to make it 41-37 with less than 10 minutes left in the game.

Mgbada scored the Bison’s final points on a lay-up, as Navy’s defense held the Orange and Blue scoreless in the last 7:27 of the game.

Horbatuck recorded her 13th career double-double and her 30th career double-digit rebounding game with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Audrey Dotson ’15 had nine points and six rebounds, while Shelby Romine ’14 finished with eight points and five rebounds. Harris and Mgbada scored six points each.

Points in the paint and points off turnovers stifled the Bison offense as they were outscored 32-20 and 16-4 in those categories, respectively.

“The good thing is that now we have a week to prepare ourselves for the second round of Patriot League play. Now that we have seen every team once, we know we need to focus on the little things and make sure we are coming out completely prepared to go up against what every team is going to throw at us,” Harris said.

The Orange and Blue will look to gain back some momentum, as they host Army tomorrow at 7 p.m.