For a while it looked as though the Colgate women’s basketball team would pull off its first league win of the year in last Saturday’s game Navy. But the inability to score, especially from the free throw line, doomed the Raiders to a 48-40 defeat.

Colgate could not get going early, and with 13:49 left in the first half the Raiders already found itself down 11-6. In the span of seven minutes, however, the Raiders came storming back and led 24-16 thanks to sophomore forward Krista Moser’s six points on the run.

Colgate’s hot shooting turned cold, and the Raiders scored just two points in the final 7:09 of the first half. Navy used an 8-0 run to tie the game up at 24 with 4:16 left, but first-year guard Candice Green scored the final basket of the half to put Colgate up 26-24 going into the locker room.

Both team’s offenses struggled to begin the second half. Colgate didn’t score until the 12:54 mark of the half, but the Midshipmen scored just three points themselves during that stretch. Green’s layup was the direct contribution of not only the Raiders’ first points of the half, but it actually gave ‘Gate a 28-27 lead. However, Navy responded with a 12-5 run, helping them build a 39-33 lead with six minutes left. Colgate never got the lead back down to less than five, and fell by a 48-40 score.

The loss dropped Colgate to 4-18 overall and 0-7 in the league, certainly not where the Raiders envisioned themselves being halfway through the Patriot League schedule. Navy, on the other hand, improved to 12-10 overall and a surprising 5-2 in league action.

“There are two approaches you can take before your second time through the league schedule,” Head Coach Pam Bass said. “You can either add new components to your game, or improve upon what you’ve already been doing. We’ve opted for the second choice, to just get better at what we’re doing. “

Turnovers and missed free throws continued to plague Colgate against Navy. The Raiders turned it over 21 times, and hit just 3-of-11 shots from the line en route to their eight-point loss. Colgate was also struggling from the field, hitting just 32 percent of its shots.

When looking at the positives, the Raiders held the Midshipmen to 11 points below their season average.

“That was a big point of emphasis in practice,” Bass said in reference to her team’s defense. “Krista Moser and Holly Havenstein did a nice job of tag teaming Cassie Consedine, who’s their best player.”

Consedine came in averaging 12.9 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game, but was held to just 8 points and five boards on 2-9 shooting on Saturday. Navy got contributions from other players such as Angela Meyers and Kalen Ropa, who combined to score 26 points.

Colgate also had its second straight solid game on the glass despite playing without star first-year center Patricia Oakes, who is still out with a concussion. The Raiders outrebounded Navy 45-34 thanks to 10 rebounds from Moser and nine from senior guard Gretchen Polinski.

Green and Garman led the way for the Raiders with eight points apiece. Green also added five boards, two assists, and two steals en route to being named Patriot League Rookie of the Week last Monday. Garman was especially impressive from downtown, nailing two of her four shots from behind the arc, and her play got the attention of her coach.

“Katie is key for us,” Bass said. “Katie has been really improving her shot selection and in our last game she was doing a good job of attacking off the dribble and also of receiving a pass and shooting the quick three.”

Garman and the Raiders will have things to sort out in practice as they prepare for Army this Saturday at 1 p.m. at West Point.