ANNAPOLIS, Md. - A busy week of action surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday for Navy Women's Basketball begins on Tuesday night with a home matchup versus Binghamton University. One year after the inaugural meeting between the Mids (1-2) and Bearcats (2-2) in Central New York, the two teams will complete the home-and-home series in Annapolis at Navy's Alumni Hall. In a competitive game last December, Binghamton came-from-behind to knock off Navy by three points, 54-51. The Mids will be looking to avenge that loss against the Bearcats in a contest that tips off at 6 p.m. on Wednesday. Following that game, Navy will host its annual Navy Classic on Saturday and Sunday when Abilene Christian, Quinnipiac and Towson come to town for four separate games.

Tuesday's Navy-Binghamton game will have live stats provided online, as well as be broadcast on the ESPN+ platform. ESPN+ is a subscription-based streaming service that requires patrons to sign-up for monthly or yearly plans prior to tuning into the contest. An audio-only portion of the contests will also be available via WNAV: over the radio waves on 99.9 FM or 1430 AM, online at WNAV.com or through the iHeart and Audacy platforms. 

Navy vs. Binghamton / America East
The Mids and Bearcats have met just once before in the 33 seasons that Navy has been DI and the 23 that Binghamton has also been at the highest level of NCAA college basketball; last December 7 in Binghamton ... In that first-ever meeting, Navy broke out to an early 20-10 lead through one quarter of play and a held a 44-41 edge after three before Binghamton outscored the visitors 13-7 in the fourth quarter ... All-time, the Mids have taken on competition from the America East conference 44 times and have posted a 22-22 record in the history of the series ... UMBC is Navy's most common opponent with 27 matchups (14-13), while Navy played both UAlbany and Binghamton in 2022-23 ... On the opposite side of the ledger Binghamton University is 22-23 all-time against Patriot League foes.
    Navy's Last Five America East Matchups:
    Dec. 7, 2022 (A): Binghamton 54 - Navy 51
    Nov. 16, 2022 (H): UAlbany 64 - Navy 50
    Nov. 20, 2021 (H): Navy 55 - Vermont 51
    Nov. 24, 2019 (A): Maine 46 - Navy 41
    Nov. 22, 2019 (A): Vermont 64 - Navy 56

Most Recent Navy-Binghamton Matchup -- Dec. 7, 2022 in Binghamton
The Navy women's basketball team had Binghamton University on the ropes from the start and deep into the fourth quarter before the opportunistic hosts scratched out a come-from-behind 54-51 victory at the Binghamton Events Center on Wednesday night. The Mids were sparked by a fast start and 10-point lead at the end of the first quarter, while the Bearcats gnawed away at their deficit with small edges in each of the next three quarter-by-quarter scoring totals and took their first lead mid-way through the fourth period.
 
Sydne Watts was strong for Navy as she posted a game-high 22 points to go along with a season-high seven rebounds over 40 minutes of play. Mimi Schrader provided secondary scoring for the Mids on Wednesday night with 11 points on four-of-seven shooting and three three-pointers. Additionally, the senior team captain grabbed a season-high eight rebounds. Center Kate Samson posted a well-rounded individual statline with six points, nine rebounds and a game-high four blocks.

The action on Wednesday started extremely fast as Navy scored on five of its first seven possessions and ran out to a 12-4 lead by the 6:07 mark of the first quarter. The up-and-down flow of play continued with the teams making shots on both ends of the court. The frenetic pace saw the under-five media timeout last all the way until 2:47. At the point, Navy held a 16-10 lead. The visitors recorded the final four points to go up by ten through ten minutes of play.

Holding a lead of 20-10, the game advanced by that same margin through the media timeout of the second quarter as each team slowly added four points to its respective scoring effort. Over the next two minutes from that 5:22 point of the quarter, Binghamton rattled off an 8-3 run to tighten the score to 27-22. Schrader netted Navy's lone field goal in this segment as Watts found her beyond the arc for a three-pointer, her second trey of the half. Watts took over the scoring reins down the stretch with five individual points. Unfortunately for the Mids, the Bearcats recorded five points of their own to send the game to the locker room with just a five-point separation, 32-27.

Navy continued to keep Binghamton at bay in the third quarter as the visitors opened up an eight-point advantage within the first 2:45 of the period as they connected on three of their first four shot attempts. With the score 38-30 in favor of the Mids, the Bearcats buckled down defensively and held Navy without a basket for over four minutes. Though struggling offensively, the Mids' defense stood strong and only allowed the Bearcats to shave four points off their deficit. An offensive rebound and putback by Morganne Andrews put a temporary end to that cold streak at 3:06 though Binghamton immediately responded with back-to-back baskets to draw within two at 40-38 at 2:11. The quarter concluded with the Bearcats eeking closer to just one point, 42-41, before Watts knocked down a spinning turnaround jumper in the Mids' final possession to make it 44-41.

After scoring 12 points in third quarter, Navy's scoring momentum slowed even further in the fourth as it didn't register a point until the 4:49 juncture of the fourth period. Once again, a solid defensive effort made sure that the Bearcats weren't able to take too much advantage of this cold stretch as Binghamton only netted four points of its own. Down 45-44, Schrader willed the Mids back into the lead as she calmly sank her third three-pointer of the contest to swing Navy ahead 47-45. The teams traded baskets for the next three minutes with Watts registering both of the Mids' field goals. A Denai Bowman jump shot for the Bearcats at 1:44 knotted the score for the third time at 51-all. Each team went scoreless over its ensuing possessions until Bowman called her own number with a driving layup to the hoop with 17 seconds left. Navy was unable to respond to that late basket as the Binghamton went 1-2 from the foul line to go up three points before watching Watts' desperation three-point attempt at the final buzzer bounce off the backboard, deflect into the rim, but rattle out at the last second. After all of the dramatics, the Bearcats came away with the 54-51 victory.
 
For the game, Navy outshot Binghamton from the field, 38.6 percent (22-57) to 37.1 (23-62) and from three-point range, 31.3 percent (5-16) to 9.1 (1-11). The Bearcats bested the Mids in free throw shooting, 63.6 percent (7-11) to 22.2 (2-9).

Comparing the Teams

(2023-24 Stats)	Navy	Binghamton
Record / League-Only	1-2, 0-0 PL	2-2, 0-0 AE
Home / Away Record	1-1 / 0-1	2-1 / 0-1
Points Per Game	60.3 PPG	70.5 PPG
Points Allowed Per Game	70.3 PPG	68.5 PPG
Field Goal Percentage	33.3 %	43.3 %
3-Point Percentage	24.0 %	41.2 %
Free Throw Percentage	64.1 %	69.5 %
Rebounds Per Game	43.7 RPG	33.8 RPG
Assists/Turnovers Per Game	12.3 / 21.7	14.5 / 14.5

Individual Leaders

(2023-24 Stats)	Navy	Binghamton
Points Per Game	Zanai Barnett-Gay, 19.0 ppg	Ella Wanzer, 14.8 ppg
Rebounds Per Game	Z. Barnett-Gay, 10.0 rpg	Jadyn Weltz, 5.8 rpg
Assists Per Game	Kyah Smith, 3.7 apg	J. Weltz, 4.0 apg
Field Goal Percentage	Z. Barnett-Gay, 40.0 %	Genevieve Coleman, 62.5 %
3-Point Percentage	Maren Louridas, 35.7 %	Kaylee Krysztof, 69.2 %
Free Throw Percentage	K. Smith, 77.8 %	Ella Wanzer, 1.000 %

Last Time Out -- Wednesday vs. Mount St. Mary's
Navy 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 and Kyah Smith 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.

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.

Both teams netted 14 points in the second period to advance the game to halftime at a 28-27 margin. Similar to the previous quarter, Navy's early offense was spurred on by success at the foul line as Smith and Kate Samson opened a flawless 4-for-4 at the charity stripe over the first 79 seconds of action. Leading 31-30, Sydne Watts 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. 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.

Parking / Shuttle
Fans are reminded that the general public does not have access to drive their vehicles on to the U.S. Naval Academy. Fans may park at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium for a fee and take a shuttle that will run every 10 minutes starting one hour before the game and will continue running until one hour after the game is completed. Fans 18 and over need a government-issued photo ID. Enter Gate 5 off Taylor Ave. to park at the stadium.