Air Force Academy
Navy
Women’s Basketball to Host Navy in Home Opener
11/10/2022 2:03:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Coach Gobrecht in Search of 600th Career Win Friday vs. Midshipmen
Air Force (1-0) vs. Navy (0-1)
Clune Arena | USAFA, Colo.
Friday, Nov. 11, 2022 – 11:00 a.m. MT
Air Force | Navy | Mountain West
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U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. – The Air Force women's basketball team, fresh off a season-opening win at Denver, returns to Clune Arena to host Navy in its 2022-23 home opener on Friday at 11 a.m.
Scouting Air Force
In a 67-63 win at Denver on Nov. 7, junior forward Dasha Macmillan ended the evening as the Falcons' leading scorer, totaling 13 points, five rebounds and two assists on 29 minutes played. Seniors Kamri Heath (G) and Nikki McDonald (F) scored 12 and 10 points, respectively. McDonald led the Falcons in rebounding, totaling seven.
Air Force women's basketball rosters 13 players in 2022-23, including the addition of six C4C (Cadet Fourth-Class - freshman) newcomers - Mackenzie Le, Milhanie Perry, Faith Shelton, Griffin Greenwood, Parker Brown, Emily Adams.
Perry, Shelton, and Adams debuted their intercollegiate careers against Denver. The trio ended their night combined for 16 points and 11 rebounds on 52 total minutes logged.
Heath returns for a fourth season with the Falcons with the program's fourth-highest points per game in 2021-22 (7.6). Heath logged the second most total rebounds this season's returning players (97), second to Jo Huntimer's 117.
Sophomore Huntimer returns to action for the Falcons, who in her inaugural season quickly proved instrumental to the program's 2021-22 success. To open her intercollegiate career, Huntimer set a new benchmark for assists by a freshman in the program's Division I era (122), the most by a first-year player since Kallie Quinn (1994-95). Huntimer's 2.14 assist-to-turnover ratio was 5th in the MW and 32nd nationally.
Scouting Navy
The Midshipmen (0-1) opened their season on Monday, falling at William & Mary, 79-64.
In a game that featured the first career starts of seven freshmen for Navy, it was junior Sydne Watts who led the offense as she shot 10-17 from the field with four three-pointers on her way to a career-high 28 points. Among the nine freshmen on Navy's roster in 2022-23, Kate Samson posted a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Maren Louridas joined her in double figures with 11 points on 4-8 shooting and three three-pointers.
The 2021-22 Midshipmen closed their season with a 10-21 record but were able to capitalize on an eighth-seed bid into the Patriot League Tournament, where they defeated Colgate and top-seeded Holy Cross on the way to falling against fourth-seed Bucknell in the conference semifinal.
Coach G Gaining Ground
Chris Gobrecht is currently serving her 43rd season as a head coach - The second-longest tenure in college women's basketball behind Stanford's Tara VanDerveer (44). Gobrecht's coaching resume boasts 599 career wins, a figure tied for 16th among active division I women's basketball head coaches. Gobrecht's 600th win – and 57th as the Falcons' head coach – would tie her for most program wins by a head coach since joining Division I in 1996.
Gobrecht was named 2021-22 Mountain West Coach of the Year following Air Force's successful 2021-22 campaign – A season punctuated by Gobrecht's fourth career WNIT appearance as a head coach, and Air Force's first postseason appearance and subsequent win in program history – a 64-60 victory over WCC opponent San Francisco on March 17.
Last Time Out
Air Force opened 2022-23 with a 67-63 win at Denver. On a night where game script largely did not play in the favor of the away team, the Falcons were able to find late success at the free-throw line, going 17-18 (.944) to close the game. All 18 attempts came in the second half, and 14 of them were in the final quarter. The Falcons' first trip to the line did not occur until the six-minute mark in the third.
"(We started) a little tentative offensively…then we kind of just settled down and started being ourselves," Gobrecht said. For a team that hasn't played together before, that was a lot to be tracking. A lot of communication was necessary, and it just took us a while to get our footing.
With a 63-61 Air Force lead less than ten seconds left in regulation, Junior Kayla Pilson (8 PTS 2 REB 1 STL) tipped a Denver in-bounds pass right into the hands of McDonald, forcing the Pioneers to foul. Four combined free-throws from McDonald and sophomore Jo Huntimer sealed the Air Force victory.
All-Time vs. Navy
The Midshipmen hold a 13-3 edge over Air Force in the all-time series history. An Air Force win would snap a nine-game losing streak which extends to the 2008-09 season under then head-coach Ardie McInelly – a 65-62 win for the Falcons at Clune Arena.
