Army Wins Fifth Straight, Defeating American 63-56

WASHINGTON, D.C. – It wasn’t always pretty, but the Army West Point women’s basketball team used a strong second half to defeat American, 63-56, on the road and record its fifth consecutive win on Saturday afternoon at Bender Arena.

Army (14-3, 5-1) didn’t have its most efficient offensive day but took care of the basketball and played strong defense to take down American (4-13, 2-4) for the third straight meeting. Camryn Tade led the charge with a team-high 20 points and Army was plus-26 while she was on the court.

The Black Knights came out of the gates strong on Saturday and were doing a good job executing on the offensive side of the floor and generating plenty of second chance opportunities. Leading 10-6 with 6:17 to play in the quarter, Reese Ericson buried a three and Taylor Wilson followed with a bucket in the paint to push the lead to nine.

American was able to cut the deficit down to seven, leaving Army with a 17-10 advantage after the opening 10 minutes. The Black Knights shot just 36.8 percent from the field in the frame but thanks to seven offensive rebounds, Army attempted 19 shots.

The first two buckets of the second quarter went Army’s way, as Tade and Reganne Reardon converted layup opportunities to extend the Black Knights lead to 21-10. Army seemed to be in complete control and on the brink of blowing the game open but scored just two points over the next 8:04 of the period. During that span, American outscored Army 14-2 and took a 24-23 lead.

The Black Knights were able to break their scoring drought and record a pair of baskets, but it wasn’t enough to take the lead into halftime. Through 20 minutes of play, American held a narrow 27-26 lead. Army struggled from the field, making just 4-13 shots and 1-8 from three. American went 5-10 from the field and a perfect 5-5 from the charity stripe.

The offensive struggles from the first half didn’t carry into the second half, as Army put together its best stretch of the afternoon in the third quarter. The two sides each knocked down shots coming out of the locker room and Tade really caught fire, scoring seven straight points going into the media timeout to give Army a 36-34 lead with under five to play in the quarter.

Coming out of the commercial timeout, Army ended the quarter on an 11-4 run to take a 47-38 lead into the final period of play. The Black Knights made 7-13 shots while holding the Eagles to 4-15. Tade had nine of her 20 points in the period.

After the Eagles scored the first points of the final quarter, the Black Knights erupted on a 10-0 run to take a commanding 57-40 lead with 5:34 to play. However, American answered with a 16-1 run to make it just a two-point deficit with 1:45 to play.

With all the momentum in favor of the Eagles, Army hunkered down and closed the game out on a 5-0 run to secure a crucial road victory as it remains tied for first place with Navy.