Navy Women’s Basketball sinks Army 57-45 in Annapolis

Army Women’s Basketball (5-14, 1-7) and Navy Women’s Basketball (7-12, 2-6) met for the 74th time on Saturday. Coming into the matchup, Navy held a slight all-time lead of 37-36, but Army actually held the advantage in Annapolis matchups 18-16. The two squads traded leads throughout the game but Navy emerged victorious 57-45.

How It Happened

Navy controlled the opening tip and quickly turned it into points from Jasmine Bishop. The two teams traded baskets early, with Army sinking two from beyond the arc and navy adding points anywhere they could to lead 8-6 after the first 5 minutes. Bishop led the early scoring with 4 points for Navy while Lindsay Scamman and Alisa Fallon added points for the Black Knights.

Army took its first lead of the game, going up 11-10 by staying hot from beyond the arc, shooting 3-4 early. However, Army finished the first quarter on a 3:09 scoring drought with 4 turnovers.

The second quarter began much the same way the first ended, with a lot of missed baskets. The Mids went 5-19 shooting and could have had a solid lead if the shots were falling. Lindsey Scamman finally ended the Black Knights’ scoring drought at the 7 minute mark, putting Army back ahead 15-14.

Navy retook the lead and started to open up the scoring in the last 3 minutes of the half, going up 24-18 behind 6 points each from Bishop and Ulasewicz, and another 5 from Gatzounas. Lindsey Scamman put the Black Knights on her back to finish the first half with 11 points and 13 rebounds. The Midshipmen took the lead into halftime 26-20 with 9 points off of Army’s 13 turnovers.

Navy opened up the second half with a 3-pointer from Ulasewicz but Army answered right back with a layup from Alisa Fallon. By the middle of the third quarter, Navy had extended their lead to 36-22 despite shooting just 14-42.

Army broke it’s scoring drought again with a three-pointer from who else but Lindsey Scamman. Scamman racked up a double-double by halftime and stayed hot right through the third quarter. Neither squad scored for the next 2:08 until Mimi Schrader hit a jumper with an Ulasewicz assist. The slow scoring allowed Army to cut the lead to 10 points after a three-pointer from Sarah Bohn. The score after three quarters reached 38-28 in favor of Navy.

Army quickly cut the lead back to single digits to start the fourth quarter with layups from Scamman and Hope Brown before Ulasewicz sunk a three for Navy. Both teams traded buckets in the fourth and with 6:36 to go, Army cut the lead down to 43-36. Scamman added two free throws at the 4:00 minute mark to reach 20 points for the game and keep Army within 10. Sophie Gatzounas played the first 37 minutes straight for the Mids and Bohn and Fallon were on the court for the same amount of time on the Army side of the ball.

The Black Knights refused to go quietly, cutting the lead to 51-45 in the final minute of play before sending Mary Kate Ulasewicz to the line for free throws. 6 points is as close as the lead would get though with Army intentionally fouling to keep Navy from running out the clock.

Players of the Game

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, the players of the game are Mary Kate Ulasewicz for Navy and Lindsey Scamman for Army. Ulasewicz dominated the Navy score sheet with 23 points to lead the team and set her own career high. Lindsey Scamman is the obvious choice for Army with her dominant 21-22 double-double tying a program record.

What’s next?

Up next the Midshipmen travel to take on Holy Cross on January 29 and the Black Knights will go to Bucknell to face the Bison.