ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team led for over 26 minutes and held a four-point lead with just over 90 seconds to go in regulation, but a hard-charging Mount St. Mary's squad tied the game with 0.2 seconds remaining and then ran off the first 10 points of overtime to secure the 67-59 decision at Alumni Hall. An extremely close and competitive game between the Mids (1-2) and Mountaineers (1-1) saw the lead change nine times and be tied another seven times on Wednesday night.

The freshmen backcourt duo of Zanai Barnett-Gay (Glenn Dale, Md.) and Kyah Smith (Richmond, Va.) led Navy as the pair combined for 43 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists. Individually, Barnett-Gay went for a career-high 28 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals over 43 minutes of action, while Smith played every second of the 45-minute contest and netted a career-high 15 points to go along with six rebounds and four helpers.

"We had some chances at the end, some clean looks, but didn't make them," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "We made some mistakes at the end; we fouled way too much. They went to the line 27 times tonight, 21 just alone in the fourth quarter and overtime; that's what the game came down to. We're a young team, but it comes down to me having to get them prepared better for these situations. We just weren't there at the end; I'll take responsibility for that. We need to be smarter at the end of games.

"Zanai plays so hard and is such an explosive scorer. Kyah and Zanai are super creative guards that can make a lot of things go. We need other people to step up and make plays. We took some really bad shots at times. We didn't execute well at all in the last five minutes. We were trying to run certain plays and all five players weren't on the same page."

A personal 7-2 run by Barnett-Gay sparked Navy early in the game as the Mids went from trailing 5-2 to pulling ahead 9-7 by the 6:29 mark of the first quarter. Two points each from Smith and Barnett-Gay over consecutive possessions at 4:15 and 3:50 helped the Mids extend their lead to 13-7 in short order. As quick as Navy started over the first six-plus minutes, Mount St. Mary's had a strong rebuttal down the stretch and scored the final seven points of the stanza to take a 14-13 lead into the quarter break.

A pair of perfect trips to the foul line by Kate Samson (So., Richmond, Va.) and Maren Louridas (So., Delmar, N.Y.) in back-to-back trips down the court swung Navy back in front of the Mount, 17-14 just 46 seconds into the second quarter. A 12-4 run by the Mountaineers over the next 4:47 pushed the visitors ahead, 26-21. The Mids' dynamic backcourt calmly drew the hosts back within one, 26-25 in short order with a jumper by Smith at 3:54 and a driving layup by Barnett-Gay at 3:21. Both teams added one field goal to their respective totals over the waning minutes of the quarter and the first half closed at a 28-27 edge in favor of Mount St. Mary's.

Similar to the previous quarter, Navy's early offense was spurred on by success at the foul line as Smith and Samson opened a flawless 4-for-4 at the charity stripe over the first 79 seconds of action. Leading 31-30, Sydne Watts (Sr., Canton, Ga.) added to the Mids' effort with one of her patented pull-up elbow jumpers at 7:53. As quickly as Navy's advantage bubbled to three points, the Mount came right back down the court and knotted the score courtesy of a Jessica Tomasetti three-pointer. Seven unanswered points between 7:01 and 6:18, capped by a Smith trey from the right wing, instantly gave the Mids their largest lead of the game. The margin stayed at seven points for the next four-plus minutes as the teams traded brief four-point swings. Three late points in the final 33 seconds of the period helped the Mountaineers cut into their deficit and make it 44-40 through 30 minutes of play.

The extremely close and competitive game continued to entertain the fans at Alumni Hall well into the fourth quarter as Mount St. Mary's scored six of the frame's first nine points to pull within one, 47-46 by the 7:09 mark. Back-to-back baskets by Barnett-Gay aided Navy's offense in the middle portion of the quarter and made it 51-46 with 5:00 showing on the scoreboard. Strong defense from both teams had that score hold up for the next 90 seconds as the teams combined to shoot 0-for-5 with Morganne Andrews (Sr., Martinsburg, W.Va.) putting the exclamation on the Mids' side of play with an emphatic block of a Jo Raflo layup attempt. The score slowly crept up to 53-49 with 1:53 left in regulation before a turnover and missed jumper on consecutive possessions by Navy was countered by a 4-for-5 showing at the foul line by the Mount, including two free throw conversions by Isabella Hunt with just 0.2 seconds remaining to force overtime.

Tied at 53-53 at the end of regulation, the Mountaineers used the momentum of their late 4-0 run to sprint pass the Mids to the tune of 10 unanswered points over the first 4:09 of the extra period. Fighting to the end, Navy clawed its way back to within six with 12 seconds remaining, but it was for naught as Mount St. Mary's would walk off victorious in overtime by a 67-59 final score.

For the game, Mount St. Mary's barely edged Navy, 34.5 percent (20-58) to 32.8 (21-64) in field goal shooting and 26.1 percent (6-23) to 12.5 (3-24) in three-point shooting. Both teams were highly effective at the foul line as the Mountaineers converted 21 of 27 shots at the charity stripe (77.8 percent), while the Mids were 14 of 17 for an 82.4 percent mark.

The battle on the glass was also decided by a razor thin edge as the visitors out-rebounded Navy, 43-42. Barnett-Gay led the Mids with 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the young season.

Defensively, Navy's pressure turned the Mount over 20 times on Wednesday night and was credited with 13 steals, including three thefts each by Andrews, Barnett-Gay and Louridas. Andrews also paced the Mids with two blocked shots.

"We still learning about our roster and how to best utilize the skills of all of our players," said Taylor in closing. "We're trying to integrate five freshmen into the college game and two directly into our starting lineup. That's on me to integrate everyone and put people in the best spots. We need to find a formula that gets our third and fourth options going too. Zanai and Kyah were hitting their shots and did a great job of keeping us in it tonight, but the rest of our roster struggled going just 4-22 from the field."

Navy will continue its homestand on Tuesday night with a matchup versus Binghamton. Tip-off between the Mids and Bearcats is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Alumni Hall.