Women’s Basketball Tops Navy, Wins Gold Star

Saturday, January 23

New York, N.Y.

11:30 AM

Army West Point

Navy

NAVY

ARMY

Women’s Basketball Tops Navy, Wins Gold Star

January 23, 2016 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

NEW YORK – The Army West Point women's basketball team sprinted out to 16-2 lead and led throughout in a convincing 75-38 victory over Navy in Patriot League action on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. The Black Knights captured the women's basketball gold star in the 2015-16 Star Series presented by USAA.

Army collects its sixth win in a row to improve to 16-2 overall and 7-1 in the conference, while Navy slips to 9-10 and 3-5.

Senior Kelsey Minato led all scorers with 22 points to include a 4-for-8 performance from three-point range. She also added five rebounds and four assists. Classmate Jean Parker finished with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting and 3-of-5 shooting from deep, while sophomores Destinee Morris and Aliyah Murray each added eight points off the bench, with Morris' eight points coming as a career high.

Senior Aimee Oertner finished with seven points and a game-high eight rebounds, freshman Madison Hovren tallied six points and four boards, and sophomore Janae McNeal recorded five points and five rebounds.

Taylor Dunham paced Navy with nine points, while Sarita Condie added eight.

"This was a tremendous performance by this group," said head coach Dave Magarity. "I was a little concerned with all of the distractions today, but we came out about as well as we've played to start a game all season long. I think today was the case of us executing the game plan, both offensively and defensively.

"The way this senior class has carried themselves and has shown the leadership with our younger kids, has been a pleasure to watch. We never stopped playing hard. We got great minutes off the bench from a lot of our younger kids, especially Destinee and Aliyah. For our seniors to win four consecutive Star games is impressive."

Army opened up a 16-2 lead early in the first quarter, during a run that included a 4-of-4 showing from three-point range, with two coming from Parker and one from both Minato and senior Brianna Johnson. The start marked the Black Knights' best of the season, as the score remained 16-2 heading into the game's first media break, with 4:29 left in the opening period.

Navy responded with a long jumper from Dunham at the 4:01 mark before three different Black Knights contributed to a 7-0 run that extended the lead to 19 points, 23-4, with 1:09 to play in the quarter.

The Midshipmen trimmed their deficit down to 14 with five unanswered points over the next 46 seconds, but Murray beat the first-period buzzer, sinking a lay-up with two ticks remaining to bring the score to 25-9 after the first.

Danielle Poblarp made a lay-in 11 seconds into the second period to cut Navy's margin to 14, and Morris buried three-pointer with 5:24 before halftime to cap a 7-4 run that brought the score to 32-15.

Navy came back to within 14 points again at the 4:25 and 1:17 marks before Hovren pulled down an offensive rebound and converted the ensuing lay-up with seven seconds left in the half to give Army a 37-21 advantage heading into the locker room.

Both sides struggled finding the bottom of the net to begin the second half, as Army scored three points to Navy's two during the first 4:58 of the third quarter.

Minato converted a runner in the lane to bring the score to 42-23, with 5:01 remaining in the third frame before Murray registered a steal 12 seconds later and took the ball back the other way for a lay-up. The Black Knights forced another Midshipmen turnover on the ensuing in-bound pass, and Minato took advantage of the opportunity with a jumper that capped a 6-0 run that lasted 40 seconds and increased the lead to 46-23.

Army closed the third period with seven of the next 13 points, including three from Morris and two points each from Hovren and Oertner.

Following a three by Navy's Christina Potts early in the fourth period that made the score 53-32, the Black Knights closed the game on a 22-6 run that lasted the final 8:18 of the quarter.

Army has a week off from competition before returning to Christl Arena to host Patriot League-leading Bucknell on Saturday, Jan. 30 at 1 p.m.

GAME NOTES: Army picks up its second win in a row against Navy to take a 33-32 lead in the all-time series … Army also wins its fourth straight Star Game to move to 21-14 … the win was the largest in a Star Game by either team, passing the previous high of 29 set by the Midshipmen on Jan. 24, 1996 … Army's previous largest margin of victory in the series was 27 points on Jan. 25, 1992 … the Black Knights improve to 1-2 all-time at Madison Square Garden, having lost both previous games at the venue to Rutgers during the 2007 and 2008 Maggie Dixon Classics … the Class of 2016 becomes the sixth class in team history to go unbeaten in Star games against Navy, joining the classes of 1993, 1994, 2007, 2008 and 2009.