Women’s Basketball Tops Pepperdine in Opener

Friday, November 13

West Point, N.Y.

7 PM

Army West Point

1-0

Pepperdine

0-1

Pepperdine

Army West Point

Women’s Basketball Tops Pepperdine in Opener

November 13, 2015 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

WEST POINT, N.Y. – A strong second-half performance led the Army West Point women's basketball team to a 63-53 victory over visiting Pepperdine in the season opener for both teams on Friday evening at Christl Arena. Army begins the year 1-0, while Pepperdine starts 0-1.

Senior Kelsey Minato led all scorers with 28 points on 9-of-19 shooting and grabbed a game-high-tying eight rebounds for the Black Knights, while classmate Aimee Oertner netted 10 points and added seven boards. Senior Jean Parker finished with eight points and five rebounds, and freshman Madison Hovren chipped in four points and five rebounds off the bench.

Paige Fecske paced Pepperdine with 13 points, while Olivia Ogwumike added 11 points. Erica Ogwumike controlled eight boards to go along with her eight points for the visitors.

"I think it was a classic game of two halves," said head coach Dave Magarity. "I want to give Pepperdine a tremendous amount of credit, I thought they came in with a great game plan. They made us spread the floor and defend them.

"I thought we struggled shooting in the first half, but all in all, we were getting some good shots. I can't say enough about my staff, I think they did a great job preparing this group. I'm proud of the way we rebounded. I'm proud of Aimee of Dani Failor and Kelsey, who was our leading rebounder and I thought Madison gave us good minutes."

Parker buried a three-pointer at 4:30 into the first period to give Army a 7-3 over Pepperdine. The visitors responded with a 12-5 run to control a 15-12 lead with 9:25 remaining in the second period.

The Black Knights regained the lead after seven straight points by Minato over the next 2:39 and forced a Pepperdine timeout, as the hosts led 19-15 with 6:47 left in the second frame.

A three from Fecske with 4:47 on the clock closed a 7-2 run and put the visitors on top, 22-21, before Kelsey Brockway netted four straight points for the Waves to build her team's lead to 26-23 with 1:30 to play in the opening half.

Each side hit a basket in the last 1:06 of the second period as the Waves controlled a 28-25 advantage at the half.

Army used a trio of three-pointers to kick start an 11-2 run during the first 3:35 of the second half, as senior Brianna Johnson, Parker and Minato buried consecutive triples before Oertner converted a fast-break lay-in to build the Black Knights' lead to six at 36-30.

Pepperdine trimmed the lead to one, at 38-37, by the 3:37 mark of the third period before Minato and Oertner contributed to a 13-2 Army run that lasted 6:19 and extended the lead to 51-39 with 7:05 left in the contest. Minato scored nine of the 13 points, making a three, a pair of two-point field goals and two free throws, and Oertner added four points.

The Waves battled their way back to as close as six points on three occasions, doing so for the final time at 59-53 with 54 seconds remaining, before Minato sank all four of her free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

Army returns to action on Sunday when it hosts Quinnipiac at 4 p.m.

GAME NOTES: Army improves to 2-1 all-time versus Pepperdine … Minato extended her Patriot League-record double-digit scoring streak to 81 contests … Hovren and classmate Gabby Purnell made their career debuts off the bench … Failor, Johnson, Minato, Oertner and Parker started the game for the Black Knights … Failor started for the first time since her freshman season, while Johnson appeared in the starting five for the first time since the Patriot League opener against Lafayette last year … Army improves to 18-21 in all-time season openers.