AU Suffers Seventh Straight Loss

The American University Women's Basketball team lost its seventh straight game Wednesday night, dropping a 70-64 decision to the Navy Midshipmen at Bender Arena. The Eagles were paced by career-high nights from seniors Joanna Barnes, who scored 27 points and Damarah Rhymer, who dropped in 13 on 6-6 shooting from the floor. "Joanna and [Damarah] really led us tonight offensively," said head coach Melissa McFerrin. "I thought both of them played very well." Navy center Nikki Curtis led the Middies with 24 points and eight rebounds, completely dominating inside against the undersized Jenyce Woodruff and Kim Salem. "Navy went right at Jenyce with the size advantage. Curtis has a very strong base and was a great presence for them inside," said McFerrin. Abi Campbell (13 points, eight rebounds), Kate Hobbs (12, 6) and Carly Meyer (11,6) also scored in double figures for the Middies, who improved their record to 6-8 overall and 2-0 in the young Patriot League season. The game saw spurts from both teams. Trailing 27-19 with five minutes remaining, the Eagles went on a 13-0 run to take a five point lead with a minute left. The run was highlighted by a three-point play from Barnes and back-to-back layups by senior Chanel Hunt and Rhymer. Trailing 34-30 at the break, Navy came out in the second half on a 15-2 run to open up a 46-38 lead five minutes in. The run included four three-pointers which seemed to take the life out of AU. "At halftime, I said that whoever takes control in the second half would win the game. We needed that momentum, Navy came out of the locker room and played great," said McFerrin. AU fought back with a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 51-47 with ten minutes left and the Bender crowd had reason to believe the Eagles would overcome their sluggish play. After Navy opened up a 13-point lead, the Eagles had one more run left in them, running off 10 straight capped off by a Hunt layup and Barnes three-pointer to cut the lead to 3 with 43 seconds left. AU had a chance to tie, but Hunt missed a contested 3-pointer. Navy then hit free throws to seal the victory. "We fought hard to get back in, but we were playing with some younger players out there in key situations and that's tough," said McFerrin. "The effort was great, but the execution was not." McFerrin alluded to the presence of freshmen Natalie Walker and sophomore Tara Williams, along with Abby Lipskis, playing in her first season with the Eagles. Hunt played a solid all-around game, scoring 13 points, grabbing five rebounds and six steals, but shot only 4 of 18 from the field. The reason AU was forced to play such youngsters is because of the loss of point guard and all-around leader Tala Hadavi to a season-ending knee injury suffered in practice. In the early part of the season, Hadavi was the Eagles' floor general, running the offense, commanding the respect of her teammates and generating points off the dribble, from beyond the arc and off the pass. The Eagles now face the entire Patriot League without their leader. "Losing a player like Tala is certainly a huge loss, but we've got to find a solution and it's got to come from that locker room. There's no savior coming," said McFerrin. For the time being, Williams takes Hadavi's spot in the starting lineup and Rhymer will get a lot of minutes at the point in key situations. AU needs Woodruff and Salem to pick up some of the load down low as Hunt must spend some more time running the offense form the perimeter. The loss comes on the heels of a disastrous Winter Break schedule in which the Eagles lost twice in the University of Virginia Tournament, against Liberty and Brown at home, and up at Lehigh in the Patriot League opener. They now travel to Lafayette on Saturday in what is a winnable game before returning home to host Army and Holy Cross next weekend. The next three games will be a huge measuring stick of the success the Eagles can expect without Hadavi. "I don't think the next few games are a make-or-break time for us because we're starting from scratch. When you lose such a huge part of your offense, you have to find shots in other places, so we're starting out fresh, so we've got some time," said McFerrin. Time may quickly run out for AU, who don't want to fall too far behind the class of the Patriot League, in which they are supposed to contend.