ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Playing its second game in two days, the Navy women's basketball team had a performance for the record books on Sunday afternoon in an exciting 90-84 contest that went the way of Idaho. The Mids (0-7) scored early and often against the Vandals (1-3) and were tied 75-75 with three minutes to go in regulation before the visitors rode their star player Beyonce Bea down the stretch and held on for a 90-84 victory at Alumni Hall in day two of the 2022 Navy Classic.
 
Sydne Watts (Jr., Canton, Ga.) was locked in from the start for Navy and tallied 12 points in the first quarter and 19 by halftime. Clutch in the second half as well, Watts finished with a career-high 33 points on 11 made field goals, including four three-pointers and a seven-for-seven showing at the foul line. Her 33 points in a game tied Carly Meyer (Feb. 13, 2007) and Angela Dobbs (Jan. 4, 1992) for the ninth-most points in a single contest in program history. The freshmen duo of Maren Louridas (Delmar, N.Y.) and Kate Samson (Richmond, Va.) provided strong back-up for Watts as Louridas scored 20 points to go along with nine rebounds and five assists, while Samson went eight-of-ten from the field for a career-best 16 points. Additionally, Samson grabbed seven rebounds and recorded five assists.
 
As a team, Navy's 84-point output is the highest since Dec. 10, 2017 when the team scored 87 points against New Mexico in overtime. The program's best recent regulation scoring effort versus a DI opponent was 86 points at home against St. Bonaventure on Nov. 26, 2017.
 
"We gave a much better effort today," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "We talked about controlling what we can control and effort is one of those things. We felt that we didn't do a very good job with our effort yesterday. We really wanted to win this game today with our effort. We wanted to represent our program, our families and the Naval Academy with how hard we were going to play. Win or lose that's what we did today.
 
"We went into this game trying to give Sydne and Maren the basketball in scoring positions. We shortened the playbook a bit and ran certain plays to get them to their spots and they finished really well. We kept getting Sydne on the low block and she was able to score. That opened up everything else."
 
The action at Alumni Hall opening evenly as both teams scored seven points over the initial 4:23. Watts paced the Mids in this early section of play with a three-pointer and a pair of successful free throws. A slight 7-2 run by the Vandals allowed the visitors to break out to a five-point lead of 14-9 by the 2:46 mark. The back-and-forth competition continued over the final two-plus minutes of the first period with Navy drawing back to within one point (16-15) on a Watts trey at 1:32 before Idaho responded with seven of the last 11 points to take a 23-19 lead into the quarter break. Watts tallied 12 of the Mids' points in the opening quarter.
 
Louridas took the scoring baton for Navy in the second quarter as she netted seven of the Mids' first nine points over the first 3:37 of the stanza. While the freshmen guard was lighting up the scoreboard, Idaho stayed in stride as the score advanced to 32-28 during that stretch. Baskets by Watts, a three-pointer at 4:32 and a fadeaway jumper at 2:00, twice pulled the hosts within three points at 34-31 and 38-35. An exchange of field goals in the last 72 seconds made it a 41-37 game at halftime in favor of the Vandals.
 
Samson entered the forefront of the scoring conversation in the third quarter as the freshman center started out the period a perfect three-for-three from the field to knot the game at 43-43 by the 7:55 mark. Invigorated by the early prosperity, Navy hit back-to-back three-pointers on consecutive possessions with Watts hitting at 6:53 and Louridas following her up at 6:20. With the score 49-43, Idaho fought back with a 9-3 run over the ensuing 2:14. Tied again at 52-52, Watts and Samson combined to score the Mids' final seven points of the quarter to help the hosts hold a slight 59-57 edge after 30 minutes of action.
 
The offensive action hit another gear in the fourth quarter as the teams combined for 58 points. A quick jumper by Idaho's Beyonce Bea 11 seconds into the final stanza knotted the game at 59-59. Exchanges of baskets over the next 2:11 advanced the scoreboard to 66-66. The Vandals were able to re-take the lead with a brief 8-3 run. With the score 74-69 at 4:04, the Mids' talented freshmen class fought to re-tie their opponents over the next three possessions as Gia Pissott (Toms River, N.J.), Samson and Louridas all made shots. From that point in the contest at 75-75, Idaho registered 10 of the next 14 points to pull ahead 85-79. Watts' 11th made field goal of the game with 32 seconds remaining brought the score to 85-81. After a 1-2 showing at the foul line by Idaho's Tiana Johnson, the newly-inserted Sam Schofield (Jr., Maumee, Ohio) left her mark with a clutch three-pointer from the corner to draw Navy back to just a two-point deficit with 22 seconds left. Unfortunately for the Mids, four straight made free throws by the Vandals closed out the showdown at 90-84.
 
For the game, Navy outshot Idaho, 52.4 percent (33-63) to 45.9 (28-61) from the field and 47.6 percent (10-21) to 31.0 (9-29) from three-point range. The Vandals took advantage of their substantial difference in free throw attempts with a 78.1 percent shooting mark on 25-of-32 chances. The Mids were also efficient at the foul line with a 72.7 percent (8-11) mark.
 
Navy won the rebounding battle by a 37 to 32 margin on Sunday. The trio of Louridas (9), Samson (7) and Watts (6) led the Mids' effort on the glass.
 
The Mids' ball movement against the Vandals was crisp as they finished with a season-high 23 assists. Mimi Schrader (Sr., Plymouth, Minn.) was credited with a career-high seven helpers, while Louridas and Samson each found their teammates on five separate occasions.
 
"This is a young team and we're still learning," said Taylor. "Today was a step forward. We're just short on players right now so that makes things a little more difficult. We know our team and our freshmen will improve. A lot of the things we're encountering right now deal with getting game reps. I was excited about how we competed today."
 
At the conclusion of the Richmond-NIU game, which went to the Huskies in comeback fashion, 67-64, the 2022 All-Navy Classic Team was announced. From the victorious NIU squad, A'Jah Davis was selected as the MVP and was joined by Chelby Koker. The other three members of the All-Classic team were Grace Townsend from Richmond, Beyonce Bea from Idaho and Sydne Watts from Navy.
 
The Mids will continue their homestand on Thursday night when they welcome the Hawks of Maryland Eastern Shore. Tip-off at Alumni Hall is set for 7 p.m.