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Jan. 9, 2006

Game Notes in PDF Format
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Game Information
Navy at Lehigh
Date / Time -- Tuesday, Jan. 10 / 7 p.m.
Site -- Stabler Arena (5,600); Bethlehem, Pa.
Navy Radio -- Live on WNAV-AM 1430 & www.wnav.com
The Series -- Lehigh leads, 17-16
Last Meeting -- Navy 64, Lehigh 59; Feb. 19, 2005, Annapolis, Md.

The Navy women's basketball team will make the first of two trips in five days to Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley for a Tuesday night contest in Bethlehem against Lehigh.

The game is slated to tip at 7 p.m. and can be heard live locally on WNAV-AM 1430 and over the internet at www.wnav.com starting at 6:45 p.m.

The Mids are 0-1 after the first weekend of league play, while the Mountain Hawks are 1-0.

A Look Back
Navy struggled right from the start of its league opener against Bucknell Saturday in Alumni Hall, missing its first 13 shots from the field and quickly finding itself trailing 14-0. The Bison would lead by over 20 points for the final 17:30 of the game and by more than 30 points for the final six minutes before eventually posting an 88-51 victory over Navy.

The Mids shot just 21.2 percent from the field in the first half and 29.5 percent for the game, while allowing the Bison to connect on 53.3 percent of their shots over the 40 minutes.

For the first time all season, Navy failed to have a player score in double figures. Lauren Skrel led the team with nine points.

Lehigh Preview
The Mountain Hawks opened their Patriot League season by recording a 60-41 victory over American Saturday in Washington, D.C. The win was the second in a row for Lehigh, who has posted a 6-8 record on the year.

Sara Ellis leads the Mountain Hawks in scoring with an average of 16.8 points a game, with Jenny Callan (15.1 ppg) and Adrienne Blount (11.8) joining Ellis in double figures.

Callan also paces the Mountain Hawks in rebounding at 11.9 boards a game, while Claire Sullivan is dishing out seven assists a contest.

Lehigh as a team is averaging 63.4 points a game and shooting 40 percent from the field, while allowing foes to average 60.2 points a game and shoot 38.6 percent from the field.

Navy vs. Lehigh
Lehigh holds a slim 17-16 advantage in the all-time series with Navy, including a 15-13 advantage in Patriot League regular season games. The Mountain Hawks have won 10 of the 17 games played in Bethlehem and have not lost to Navy in Stabler Arena since 2001.

Common Foes
Navy and Lehigh both played Monmouth this season. The Mids lost an 88-79 decision to the Hawks at the Florida Atlantic Tip-Off Classic Nov. 19 in Florida, while the Mountain Hawks recorded a 64-45 victory over Monmouth in Bethlehem.

On this Date
Navy has an overall record of 3-5 and a Patriot League record of 1-3 in games played on Jan. 10.

Navy and Pennsylvania
The Mids have posted an all-time record of 120-71 in games played against teams from Pennsylvania as well as a 54-51 record in games played in the Keystone State.

Extra Sessions
Navy's Jan. 4 double overtime game at Troy was the first Navy contest to reach overtime since March 7, 2003, when Navy lost to Bucknell, as well as the first multi-overtime game since March 1 of that same year when Navy posted an 86-85 triple overtime victory over Army.

Navy has posted a 13-11 record in overtime games, as well as a 4-2 record in multi-overtime contests.

Busy Stretch Finished
The Jan. 4 Troy game concluded a very busy stretch of games for the Mids, one which saw Navy play four games in eight days. Navy posted a 2-2 record over those four games.

After Success vs. Failure
Navy has posted a 2-5 record in games following a win and a 4-2 record in games following a loss.

Better vs. Non-League Schools
Navy's 7-6 record against non-league opponents this year marked the first time Navy posted a winning record against non-conference foes in three years.

The Mids were 4-9 against non-league opponents last year and posted a 7-8 mark two years ago.

Slow Starts
Navy has been prone to slow starts, as of late. The Mids have been the first team to score 10 points only once in the last 10 games (St. Bonaventure) and have reached 20 points first in three of the last 10 games.

Navy has shown the ability to rally quickly, though, reaching 30 points first in five of the last 10 contests.

Turnovers
One area of concern for the Mids this season has been turnovers.

Navy is averaging 20.5 turnovers a game this year and has committed at least 20 turnovers in eight games on the year.

Making the issue worse is that the Mids have turned the ball over more times than their opponents in each of their 14 games this season. Navy is forcing 14.6 turnovers a game, giving the Mids a league-low -5.2 turnover margin.

Shooter!
On the plus side for Navy this year has been its ability to knock down shots.

The Mids are converting on 40.9 percent of its field goal attempts and 38.2 percent of its three-point attempts, as well as 72.2 percent of their attempts from the foul line. Navy also is averaging 6.1 three-point field goals a game.

Defensively, Navy is holding its opponents to a field goal percentage of 39.2 percent and a three-point mark of 28.1 percent.

Three-Point Shooting
Navy is shooting 38.2 percent from behind the three-point line this season, the second-best percentage in school history.

Three-Point Shooting -- Part 2
Lauren Skrel ranks second in Navy history with a career three-point field goal percentage of 39.4 percent, while Ashley Pelzek is tied for ninth at 33.2 percent and Carly Meyer stands 12th at 32.7 percent.

Additionally, Pelzek stands seventh at Navy with 97 career three-pointers made, while Meyer ranks 14th with 52 career triples.

Rebounding
Navy also has been very good at controlling the glass this year, hauling in more rebounds than its foes in nine of its 14 games.

Rebounding -- Part 2
Navy leads the Patriot League with an average of 29.43 defensive rebounds a game, but ranks eighth with only 10.79 offensive caroms a contest on the year.

Going 70
After surpassing the 70-point mark in five games during the entire 2004-05 season, Navy equaled that mark through 10 games this year and has totaled 70 or more points in seven games.

The Mids are a combined 8-4 since the start of the 2004-05 season when scoring at least 70 points in a game, as well as 16-5 when scoring at least 70 points during Tom Marryott's three seasons as head coach.

Balancing the Minutes
On the year, 11 Mids are averaging at least 10 minutes of playing time a game, with no players averaging over 30 minutes a game.

Lauren Skrel
Lauren Skrel has totaled 63 assists on the season to improve her career total to 241, a mark placing her 11th in Navy history. Making her total even more impressive is that all but 19 of her assists have come since the start of her junior season.

Skrel has also been very effective on the glass this season, hauling in an average of 4.5 caroms a game. After grabbing 90 boards (3.1 rpg) during all of last year, she has already totaled 63 rebounds this season. Skrel has grabbed at least five rebounds in a game six times this year, including a career-high nine Jan. 4 at Troy.

Skrel also has been become more of a scoring threat, as of late, scoring in double figures in three of the last five games and averaging 12.0 points a game during this span. She has also connected on at least one three-point field goal in seven of the last eight games and is shooting 37.5 percent from behind the arc in this time.

Betsy Burnett
After totaling 42 points during all of last season, Betsy Burnett has scored 130 points this year. She has scored eight or more points in 11 games this year and has reached double figures in seven games.

Burnett also has shot 50 percent or better from the field in six games, while hauling in five or more rebounds in eight games.

She totaled a career-high 16 points Nov. 29 at Mount St. Mary's, then recorded the first double-double of her career with 12 points and a career-high 10 rebounds Jan. 4 at Troy.

Blocked Shots
Carly Meyer and Kate Hobbs both rank among the all-time blocked shots leaders in Navy history. Meyer leads Navy with 10 rejections this season.

Ashley Pelzek
Ashley Pelzek has moved into seventh place in Navy history with 97 career three-point field goals made.

She has tied a career high of five three-pointers made in a game four times this season, and is averaging 2.7 three-point field goals made a game, while shooting 40.4 percent from behind the arc.

One of the top games of her career came Dec. 28 against Radford when she tallied 16 of her career-high 24 points after halftime, while also grabbing a season-high 10 rebounds.

Pelzek has scored in double figures in four of the last five games and is averaging 15.6 points, 3.0 three-pointers and 3.6 rebounds a game during this span.

Pelzek -- Part 2 (Patriot League Honor)
Pelzek was selected as the Patriot League Player of the Week on Jan. 3 for her performances against Radford, UMBC and Long Island.

She led the Mids in scoring in each of the three games, averaging 17.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.3 three-point field goals made a game, while also shooting over 60 percent from the field and 66 percent from behind the three-point line.

P.L. Player of the Week -- Part 2
Pelzek's selection as the league player of the week marked the first time a Mid has received the award since Courtney Davidson picked up her fourth and final weekly award Jan. 4, 2004.

Pelzek also became the first Mid other than Davidson to win the award since Hilary Goodrich garnered the accolade Feb. 28, 2000.

Margaret Knap
Margaret Knap has seen an increase in her role and productivity over the last six games.

Knap Games #1-8
2.9 ppg, 2.1 rpg
Knap Games #9-14
7.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg

Her best game of the season came Jan. 4 at Troy when she tallied 17 points, shot nearly 55 percent from the field and tied a career-high with eight rebounds.

Kate Hobbs
After starting the opening five game of the year, Kate Hobbs has picked up her game since moving into a reserve role over the last nine games.

Hobbs as a Starter -- 5 games (#1-5)
4.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg
Hobbs as a Reserve -- 9 games (#6-14)
7.3 ppg, 4.0 rpg

She is averaging 9.4 points a game and is shooting 44.1 percent from the field over the last five games.

Hobbs recently reached double figures in back-to-back games, scoring a season-high 14 points against Long Island followed by 11 points at Troy.

Lauren Nelson
Lauren Nelson is another post player who has played very well as of late, averaging 5.0 points and 4.2 rebounds a game over the last six games. Included in this stretch was a career-high nine points against UMBC and a career-high of six rebounds against both St. Bonaventure and UMBC.

3-Point Streak
Navy has connected on at least one three-point field goal in 237 consecutive games. The last time the Mids were held without a three-point field goal was Nov. 23, 1997, by Sacramento State.