HPU Women’s Basketball Tops Navy, 63-47, to Win Navy Classic

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The High Point University women’s basketball topped Navy, 63-47, on Saturday at Alumni Hall in Annapolis, Md. to win the Navy Classic. Junior Tayler Tremblay led the team with 17 points and was named the Tournament MVP. Redshirt-sophomore Lindsay Puckett was also named to the All-Tournament team with 10 points against Navy.

The Panthers overcame an early deficit and played great defense in the second half, holding Navy to 19 points. Tremblay had five assists and two steals to go along with her game-high 17 points. She had a season-high eight assists in Friday’s win over Monmouth to earn MVP honors. Puckett followed up her career-high 21 points against Monmouth with 10 points and six rebounds against Navy. She was named to the All-Tournament Team.

Junior Cheyenne Parker posted a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds. She also had six blocks, three assists and two steals. High Point improved to 4-4 with the win.

“It feels great to win the tournament,” said head coach DeUnna Hendriz. “We had to beat two very good and very different teams. Everyone contributed and executed the game plan. Tayler had a fantastic weekend and did everything we asked her to.”

Coach Hendrix was forced to use a timeout early as Navy jumped out a 10-2 lead after three and a half minutes. High Point responded to the break, holding the Midshipmen scoreless for the next six minutes and fighting back to a 10-10 tie. The Panthers drove in to the paint and capitalized on Navy fouls, going 4-4 at the free throw line during the 8-0 run.

Tremblay was fouled by Alix Membreno on a loose ball at half court with 7:25 remaining in the first half. She sank both her free throws to give the Panthers their first lead of the day, 18-17. The High Point defense kept Navy off the board for three minutes, allowing the Panthers to take a 22-17 lead on a layup by Parker.

Navy tied the game 26-26 on back-to-back three pointers from Kara Pollinger and Audrey Bauer. Kendra Wallace answered with a shot from behind the arc at 2:20 to give the Panthers back the lead and spur a 6-2 HPU run to end the half. High Point led 32-28 at halftime.

High Point pushed the lead to 10 to start the second half. Tremblay rolled off a screen a nailed a jumper from the free-throw line to make it 38-28 with 17:26 remaining.

The Panthers led by at least nine for the rest of the game, rolling to the 63-47 win.

Stacia Robertson contributed four points and nine rebounds and Wallace finished the game with six points.

High Point continues its seven-game road trip at Davidson on Wednesday. The game will begin at 5 p.m. The Panthers are 4-2 all-time against Davidson including a 82-69 win at the Millis Center last year. Parker had 18 points and 10 rebounds in the win.