Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
3-1
Air Force
1-4
Army Uses Hot Shooting to Push Past Air Force
November 25, 2014 | Women's Basketball
With its third consecutive win, Army improves to 3-1 on the season, while Air Force slips to 1-4. The Black Knights were successful on 50.8 percent (32-for-63) of their attempts from the field, while hitting on 57.1 percent (20-for-35) of their second-half chances. Army knocked in a season-best 56.4 percent from the floor during its last outing at Manhattan on Nov. 22.
Kelsey Minato led the Black Knights on the scoring sheet for the fourth time this season as the junior finished with a season-high 25 points, shooting 10-of-14 from the floor to include a 5-for-8 showing from beyond the arc. With her 25-point effort, Minato reached 1,207 career points and moved past Jen Hazlett (USMA '14) for 10th on the team's all-time scoring list. Senior Olivia Schretzman notched Army's first double-double of the year by tallying 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Army controlled a slight advantage during the game's opening minutes before stringing together a 21-6 run to stretch its lead to 29-13 by halftime. Junior Kelsey Minato scored nine of her 11 points in the frame during the run, which lasted the final 13:32 of the period.
Air Force senior Lindsey Lewis accounted for nine of her team's first-half points, while a total of six Black Knights hit baskets in the period, including junior Brianna Johnson (five points) and Schretzman and junior Jean Parker, who netted four each. Lewis paced the Falcons with 13 points on the evening.
The Black Knights used the first 4:56 of the second half to extend a 7-0 run that closed out the opening period to 24-0. Army shot 9-of-13 from the floor and received scoring from six players during the stretch, including eight from Minato and six from Schretzman.
The hosts grew their lead to as many as 47 by the 1:49 mark of the second half, with junior Ciara Jackson and freshmen Nicole Heavirland and Margaret Anne Hubbell seeing their first action of the season. Freshman Jahla Osborne made the most of her season-high 11 minutes by netting a season-best seven points in a 3:45 span down the stretch.
Army's defense had its best outing of the season, limiting the Falcons to 25.4 percent shooting in the contest and allowing Air Force a 12.5-percent success rate from three-point range.
Army begins a three-game road trip on Friday, Nov. 28, as it heads to California to face UC Santa Barbara and Pepperdine (Nov. 30) before returning east for a match-up at Fairleigh Dickinson (Dec. 6).
GAME NOTES: Army grabs its fourth consecutive win versus Air Force to improve to 9-7 all-time against the Falcons ... Kelsey Minato scored a season-best 25 points to extend her double-digit scoring streak to 53 games ... Minato moved past Jen Hazlett (USMA '14) for 10th on Army's all-time scoring list ... Army received double digit scoring from three players for the first time this season (Minato, 25; Schretzman, 13; Parker, 10) ... Ciara Jackson made her season debut, while Nicole Heavirland and Margaret Anne Hubbell made their career debuts ... the 44-point scoring margin marks the largest in the Army-Air Force series.
