ANNAPOLIS, Md. - After an extended 10-day break for finals at the Naval Academy, the Navy women's basketball team will head back to the hardcourt with a Sunday afternoon tilt versus William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. After dropping a tight four-point decision at George Mason in their season opener, the Mids (0-2) struggled with Richmond's defensive pressure and lost 65-49 in their second game of the campaign on Dec. 2. A matchup at Kaplan Arena on Sunday against the Tribe (0-2) will give first-year head coach Tim Taylor and his young Midshipmen squad another chance to break into the win column as the build towards January's Patriot League schedule continues. The contest between Navy and William & Mary is slated for a 3 p.m. tip-off and will be streamed online via FloHoops. After Sunday's contest the Mids will play two more games in quick succession with road competitions at Howard on Wednesday and Morgan State on Friday.

Navy vs. William & Mary
The Mids and Tribe have met 14 times on the hardwood in a series that dates back to Feb. 23, 1980 ... All-time, Navy holds an 8-6 advantage in the series with William & Mary ... Most recently, the Mids earned a 69-64 victory over the Tribe on Dec. 4, 2012 in Annapolis ... The two squads have only met twice in the past 27 years (Nov. 18, 2011 and Dec. 4, 2012) ... Navy is 4-2 all-time in games played in Williamsburg with victories in 1983, 1985, 1987 and 2011 ... Navy has an all-time record of 32-33 against teams from the Colonial Athletic Association and has played nine of the 10 associated schools; they've faced off with Towson (21), William & Mary (14) and Delaware (11) the most times.

    Last Five Matchups:
    Dec. 4, 2012 (Annapolis): Navy 69 - William & Mary 64
    Nov. 18, 2011 (Williamsburg): Navy 61 - William & Mary 58
    Nov. 30, 1993 (Williamsburg): William & Mary 90 - Navy 50
    Dec. 19, 1992 (Annapolis): William & Mary 55 - Navy 40
    March 2, 1992 (Annapolis): William & Mary 70 - Navy 63

Comparing the Teams

(2020-21 Stats)	Navy	William & Mary
Record / League-Only	0-2 / 0-0 PL	0-2 / 0-0 CAA
Home /Away Record	0-0 / 0-2	0-1 / 0-1
Points Per Game	58.5 PPG	51.0 PPG
Points Allowed Per Game	68.5 PPG	71.0 PPG
Field Goal Percentage	36.9 %	30.3 %
3-Point Percentage	26.1 %	26.2 %
Free Throw Percentage	74.5 %	67.9 %
Rebounds Per Game	38.5 RPG	33.0 RPG
Assists/Turnovers Per Game	8.5 / 23.5	12.0 / 16.0

Looking Back at Navy-William & Mary: December 4, 2012
After first digging a 13-point deficit for itself in the opening minutes of the game and then taking a nine-point second-half advantage, Navy hung on down the stretch for a 69-64 victory over William & Mary at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

The game could not have started off poorer for the Mids as the Tribe scored on each of their opening four possessions to quickly take a 9-0 lead over Navy. The William & Mary advantage soon grew to as many as 13 points at both 15-2 and 17-4, with the latter score coming at the 13:33 mark of the first half.

With the score 20-8, M.L. Morrison scored on a layup to make it a 10-point margin at 11:28. One minute later, Chloe Stapleton made her presence felt. Appearing in her first game of the season, Stapleton drilled a three-point field goal to make the score 20-13. Taylor Hilton followed with a trey of her own to take the William & Mary lead back to 10 points, but then Stapleton answered immediately with a three-point field goal, recorded a steal, hit another triple, stole the ball again and scored on a layup. Her latter bucket that gave her 11 points in a total of four possessions in a span of 1:46 and pulled Navy to within two points of the Tribe at 23-21 with 8:48 left to play in the half.

William & Mary soon took a five-point lead at 28-23, but an 8-1 run by Navy -- with Jade Geif scoring the last five and seven points in all -- gave the Mids a 31-29 lead with just over four minutes left to play before halftime. The lead would change hands three more times down the stretch before a pair of free throws by Kara Pollinger with 2.2 seconds left before the break gave Navy a 38-37 advantage.

The Navy offense was anything but sluggish at the start of the second half as the Mids scored on five of the first-seven times they had the ball, but that only allowed them to build a 50-45 advantage as the Tribe also had their offense clicking. Navy would take its largest lead of the game when Stapleton connected on another three-point field goal to give the Mids a 55-46 lead with 13:55 left to play.

The Mids' advantage stayed between four and seven points for most of the next eight minutes as the game advanced to the 5:51 mark with the score 60-56. Another Tribe triple this time by Emily Correal cut William & Mary's deficit to just one point. The game stayed at a one-possession for the ensuing two minutes before eventually another Tribe three-point knotted it at 62-62 at 3:31. Back-to-back baskets by Alex Membrano shot Navy back into the lead 67-62 by 2:38. Both offenses cooled significantly to close the game as William & Mary shot 1-4 with three turnovers over its final possessions, while Navy went 0-3 from the field with a pair of made Pollinger free throws to aid its effort in the 69-64 final.

Four players scored in double figures for Navy, with Stapleton's 20 points leading the way. Geif produced her fifth double-double in a span of seven games with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Membreno ended the night with 14 points, five rebounds, four steals and two assists. Meanwhile, Pollinger contributed 10 points, four rebounds, four assists, one block and one steal.

Both teams shot roughly 40 percent from the field, and each made nine three-point field goals in the game. Navy also was 12 of 17 from the foul line while William & Mary was 5 of 10 from the charity stripe.

Last Time Out: Navy at Richmond, Wednesday, December 3
In the second game of the 2020-21 season the Navy women's basketball team ran into a fast-starting Richmond Spider squad that scored 22 points in the first quarter. Turnover issues throughout the non-conference game at Richmond's Robins Center plagued the Mids' multiple comeback attempts as the visitors eventually fell by a score of 65-49 in favor of the Spiders.

Coming off a career-best 26-point performance at George Mason in the season opener, Sophie Gatzounas once again fronted Navy's offensive production as she netted a game-high 20 points on 7-11 field goal shooting. She also added a team-high nine rebounds in 39 minutes of action. Kolbi Green was second on the team in scoring as she finished with nine points, while grabbing five rebounds and tallying four assists.

The game began with the Spiders shooting lights out from long range with four three-pointers in the first 3:40 of play to go up 16-6. Over the next two-plus minutes, the Mids scored seven unanswered points to make it 16-13 at 3:33. The keen long distance marksmanship by Richmond continued over the final three minutes as the Spiders knocked down two more treys to re-extend their lead out to 22-17 by the end of the first period. For the opening period, Richmond shot 6-11 from three-point range.

The second quarter opened nearly even as the Mids netted six points versus five for the host Spiders. Gatzounas scored all six points for Navy, including a three-pointer from the wing at 4:48 to make it 27-23 in favor of Richmond. After that point in play where the Mids cut their deficit to four points, the Spiders rattled off a 7-2 run to go up 34-25 at 1:52. Each team made a free throw down the stretch to send the game to halftime with the score 35-26. Navy's ability to stay even closer to Richmond in the first half was held back by its struggle with ball control as the Mids were charged with 17 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.

Similar to the second stanza, the teams were evenly matched to begin the third quarter as each scored nine points through the first five minutes as the game advanced to 44-35 by the 5:01 mark. Both defenses buckled down over the second half of the frame as Richmond made just two field goals over the final 4:05, while Navy countered with one, a Gatzounas layup with five seconds remaining.

Coming out for the fourth quarter down 49-38, the Mids fought to keep their deficit in single digits as baskets by Kristina Donza and Gatzounas each flipped the score from 11 down to nine at 8:44 and 7:22, respectively. The Spiders made sure that the game would never get closer than that nine-point margin as they broke away over the next 4:04 with 14 of the next 17 points to advance the scoreboard from 51-42 to 65-45. The Mids held the Spiders scoreless over the final 3:18 and were able to shave four points off the final score as Green deposited a pair of layups to send the game final at 65-49.

For the contest, Richmond outshot Navy, 41.1 percent (23-56) to 36.2 (17-47) from the field, as well as at the line with a 75.0 percent (9-12) to 60.0 (12-20) advantage. Both teams were nearly equal from three-point range as the Mids shot 30.3 percent (10-33) versus 30.0 percent (3-10) for the Mids.

Defensively, Navy forced Richmond into 21 turnovers and were credited with nine steals. Green posted a team-high four thefts. On the opposite side of the ledger, Richmond turned Navy over 30 times on 10 steals.

Captain Takes the Lead
Sophie Gatzounas, the Mids' team captain has started out fast for Navy in 2020-21 with back-to-back games of 20 or more points, including a career-high 26 in the season opener at George Mason ... Prior to this season, she had reached the 20-point plateau in just three of her first 85 appearances ... Nationally, she ranks 27th with a 23.0 points per game average ... Additionally, she has played in 78 of a possibly 80 minutes; her 39.0 minutes per game average is 13th-best in NCAA Division I.