The Monmouth University women’s basketball team loss to Navy 73-49 on Thursday night in Annapolis, MD.
Junior center Erica Balman led Monmouth with 10 points, while grabbing five rebounds. Sophomore forward Adriana Zelaya added eight points, hitting two three point shots. Sophomore Alexa Middleton scored seven points and had seven rebounds, while junior guard McKinzee Barker also contributed seven points.
The Hawks struggled in the first quarter, shooting 2-11 from the field and turning the ball over 11 times, leading to a 15-7 Navy lead after ten minutes of play. Balman connected on two-straight layups early in the second quarter to make the score 22-14, but Navy went on an 8-0 run to make the deficit 14 at the second quarter media timeout. Navy then embarked on a 19-0 scoring run in the final 5:40 of the quarter to make the halftime score 41-14. The 14 points was the lowest scoring output for Monmouth so far this season.
Navy opened the second half on a 9-2 run to open their lead to 34 early in the third. They then used another run late in the quarter to take a 37-point lead, but Balman scored on another layup to make the score 60-25 after thirty minutes. Monmouth began to find their scoring touch late, outscoring Navy 24-13 in the final frame, but could not overcome the deficit, losing by 24.
“As a team, we are disappointed in our effort today,” Head Coach Jenny Palmateer said. “We didn’t hit shots early and we let that impact our play in too many other areas.”
For the game, the Hawks shot 31 percent from the field and 26 percent from three. They did shoot 88 percent from the line, connecting on eight of nine free throws. Monmouth was out-rebounded 43-36, but did outscore Navy in bench points 34-31.
The loss dropped Monmouth to 2-5 on the season, as the game was part of a two-game road swing which took them to Robert Morris for a Sunday afternoon contest, where they lost 56-38.
Sophomore guard Kayla Shaw scored 19 points, which equaled out to half of the total amount the Hawks had in the game. Senior guard Rhaiah Spooner-Knight contributed eight points and grabbed five rebounds.
Both teams played a tightly-contested first quarter, as the Colonials held a 10-9 advantage after ten minutes. Robert Morris began the second quarter with a 10-2 scoring run, before Shaw responded with a three. The Colonials got another basket, which made the score 22-14, forcing Monmouth to call a timeout with 5:28 remaining in the half. Robert Morris closed the half on an 8-0 run, which made the halftime score 30-18.
Robert Morris maintained their lead all throughout the second half, as it hovered around nine for a majority of the back-half of the third quarter and the start of the fourth. They pulled away in the final minutes, handing Monmouth their second-straight loss.
“I thought we played better today in certain areas and had a lot more effort than our last outing, so I was pleased with that,” Palmateer said. “We’re just a team that needs to keep working offensively and figure some things out.”
The Hawks shot 31 percent from the field, hitting only 14 shots, and shot 18 percent from three-point range.
That loss dropped Monmouth to 2-6 on the season, and they will hope to snap their two-game losing streak on Wednesday, Dec. 6, as they travel to Teaneck, New Jersey to take on in-state foe Fairleigh Dickinson. Tip-off is slated for 7:00 p.m. You can listen live on WMCX 88.9.
PHOTO COURTESY of Karlee Sell
