Women’s Basketball Picks Up Road Win at American

Saturday, January 16

Washington, D.C.

2 PM

Army West Point

(14-2, 5-1)

American

(4-13, 2-4)

Army West Point

American

Women’s Basketball Picks Up Road Win at American

January 16, 2016 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Army West Point women's basketball team secured its second road win of the Patriot League season with a 52-42 victory over American on Saturday afternoon at Bender Arena.

Army improves to 14-2 overall and 5-1 in the Patriot League, while American slips to 4-13 and 2-4.

Senior Kelsey Minato finished with 18 points for the second game in a row, after shooting 5-of-10 from the field and 8-of-10 at the foul line, while also adding seven rebounds. Sophomore Janae McNeal scored 15 points and contributed three boards and three steals, and classmate Aliyah Murray tallied eight points and six rebounds. Senior Aimee Oertner contributed seven points, five rebounds and a pair of blocks.

Cecily Carl posted 10 points and six rebounds for American, while Emily Kinneston finished with eight points.

Both teams scored once to begin the game, before McNeal registered steals on consecutive possessions and took the ball all the way to the hoop for lay-ins. McNeal scored her sixth straight point on Army's next trip down the floor 3:48 into the first quarter to cap a personal 6-0 run and give the Black Knights an 8-2 lead.

American scored seven straight points over the next 4:00 to move ahead, 9-8, and Oertner converted a lay-up with 1:56 on the clock to halt the Black Knights' scoring drought and make the score 10-9.

Maria Liddane sank a pair of free-throws with 50 seconds on the clock in the first period, as the quarter ended with the Eagles leading, 11-10.

Both teams struggled to shoot the ball to begin the second frame, as Army began 0-of-4 from the field and American started 0-of-5. Senior Jean Parker scored the first points of the second quarter for either team, hitting a lay-up on a pass from Oertner with 5:38 remaining in the first half to give the Black Knights a 12-11 advantage.

Parker's lay-in started an 8-4 scoring run for Army, as Minato added four free-throws and McNeal tallied a jumper, to build the visitors' lead to three, 18-15, with 2:43 left in the opening half. Each side netted two more points in the half's final 2:06, as the Black Knights controlled a 20-17 lead at the break.

American started the second half with a 7-2 run that gave the Eagles a 24-22 advantage 3:04 into the third quarter before McNeal and Minato used jumpers to give the Black Knights back the lead, 26-24, with 4:55 remaining in the third.

McNeal and Minato each scored again to run Army's scoring stretch to 8-0 and build the visitor's advantage to six, 30-24, with 3:22 on the third-quarter clock.

Kinneston buried a triple at the 2:48 mark to bring the score to 30-27, but the Black Knights responded with five unanswered points over the next 55 seconds to extend their margin to eight, 35-27. Minato used an old-fashioned three-point play to cap the 5-0 run. American scored once more in the third period as Army entered the final quarter with a 35-29 advantage.

Murray hit a pair of lay-ins early in the fourth period and the Black Knights maintained at least a four-point lead until Kinneston scored five straight points for the Eagles to cut the visitors' margin to two, 40-38, with 5:15 remaining in the fourth frame.

Army tallied the next six points, including two from Oertner, to give the visitors a 46-38 lead with 2:38 on the clock. The Black Knights led by as many as 10 and didn't allow the Eagles to come any closer than seven points over the remainder of the contest.

The Black Knights are back home for a contest against Holy Cross on Wednesday, Jan. 20 at 7 p.m.

GAME NOTES: Army improves to 15-18 all-time against American … Army's senior class matched the team record for career wins by a single class, moving its' record to 84-27 over the last three-plus year (the Class of 2015 posted a mark of 84-41 … Minato increased her Army scoring record to 2,185 points … Minato also reached 702 field goals for her career to move four shy of matching Katie Macfarlane's (USMA '04) program record of 706 … head coach Dave Magarity collected the 496th win of his career (496-441).