The AU women's basketball team suffered its third straight Patriot League defeat, losing, 80-70, to the Navy Midshipwomen Tuesday night at Annapolis, Md.
The Eagles were led by senior Tala Hadavi, who scored a career-high 24 points, including shooting 5 of 10 from 3-point range. She also pulled down 10 rebounds while playing the entire game.
AU led the game early, thanks to Hadavi's hot start, and took an eight-point lead into the break, 30-22. But after playing catch-up most of the second half, the Mids finally took the lead for good with eight minutes left on Kalen Kropa's layup. That spurred on a 12-0 run over the next two minutes that gave Navy a sizable cushion down the stretch.
"We played very well in the first half with a lot of emotion and intensity, but we came out very flat in the second half," said Eagles coach Melissa McFerrin. "We failed to execute all the adjustments we made at halftime."
The Mids were led by Ashley Pelzek, who scored 25 points and outdid Hadavi by shooting 7 of 12 from beyond the arc, as the fans were treated to a shooting clinic by both teams' leading scorers.
The Eagles played without second-leading scorer and leading rebounded Abby Lipskis, who was nursing a back injury. Her void let the Middies dominate the middle, with Betsy Burnett and Kate Hobbs combining for 19 points and 16 rebounds in the paint.
Lipskis was replaced in the starting lineup by Tish Curry, who scored ten points and grabbed four rebounds in 37 minutes, providing effective relief for the Eagles.
Without their starting center, the Eagles started three freshmen: Curry, Sahar Nusseibeh and Pam Stanfield.
For the third straight game, the Eagles started very strong before fading down the stretch and losing a crucial league game in the middle of their schedule.
"It's easy to say that some of it is youth, but I don't accept that excuse," McFerrin said. "They shouldn't be young anymore at this point in the season. We've been tested enough as a team to come away with some of these wins."
The most crushing defeat was the 59-55 loss at Holy Cross last week, but with each loss, the Eagles sink farther into the PL cellar. They now sit in last place with a 1-5 record and await perennial cellar-dweller Lafayette, who is much improved after beating Lehigh last week.
"This is not the same old Lafayette team and if we want to come out of that game with a win, we're going to have to execute a lot better and play an up-tempo style of basketball," said McFerrin.
The Leopards come to Bender Arena Saturday for a 4:30 p.m. showdown before AU begins a brutal road trip next week to Lehigh and then to league-leader Bucknell before returning home to end the season.
