ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team put together its best defensive effort of the season as it earned a hard-fought 56-47 victory over Lafayette on Saturday afternoon. Trailing early to the Leopards (6-9, 1-3 PL), the Mids (5-10, 1-3 PL) closed the first quarter on a 16-4 run before turning up the defensive pressure the final three quarters of action at Alumni Hall. After Lafayette scored 13 points in that opening period, they never reached that mark again and shot just 31.0 percent overall on the afternoon. Saturday was the first time this season, that Navy had held a DI opponent to less than 59 points.

The Mids' underclassmen shined on Saturday with 52 of their 56 points and 40 of their 41 rebounds. The freshmen trio of Kyah Smith (Richmond, Va.), Violet McNece (Chesterfield, Mo.) and Zanai Barnett-Gay (Glenn Dale, Md.) took the offensive reigns as all three players reached double-figures and combined for all nine of the team's three-pointers. Smith led all scorers with 18 points on 6-14 shooting, three treys and three assists, while McNece set a career-high with 15 points on 5-8 shooting from three-point range to go along with four rebounds over 31 minutes of action. Barnett-Gay kept her streak of double-digit scoring alive with 13 points. Additionally, she grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and four steals.

"We've played really hard on defense the first three Patriot League games, so we know what we could be capable of, but things are really starting to click in practice and it showed today," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "We're a young team without a lot of playing experience and the hardest thing to do in the college game is to grasp how to play defense. We rotated really well today and aimed to ramp up the aggressiveness. I think that helped us defensively.

"Violet and I sat down and had a conversation this week," said Taylor of McNece's performance today. "Sometimes freshmen hit a wall, especially here at the Academy where there are a lot of other responsibilities. I told her that I believe in her and that she can make a big difference for us, but we needed to see better effort from her in practice and on the defensive end. I love her and I love her ability. We haven't been hitting a lot of outside shots and she could very well be our best three-point shooter, but defensively she needed to get better. Over the last two days at practice we saw that effort and improvement and gave her this opportunity. She really proved herself. She put in the work the past couple of days on the scouting report. She hit five threes today, which we love to see, but she really did some great things defensively too."

The action on Saturday with Sydne Watts (Sr., Canton, Ga.) collecting the game's first basket for Navy before Lafayette immediately fired back with nine unanswered points over a span of 2:03. Trailing 9-2 at 5:23, the newly-inserted McNece left her mark as crisp ball-movement resulted with Kate Samson (So., Richmond, Va.) finding her wide open on the wing for her first three-pointer of the game. That basket sparked the Mids on both ends as their offensive picked up with three straight makes as Gia Pissott (So., Toms River, N.J.) and Smith followed with five combined points to help Navy draw within one, 11-10 at 3:48. Defensively, the Leopards were limited to just one make over their next five shots. After a pair of free throws allowed Lafayette to extend its lead back to three points at 2:02, Navy scored the final eight points of the quarter book-ended by three-pointers from Barnett-Gay and McNece.

"I thought when we inserted Kate and Gia together in the first quarter when we were down 9-2, they flipped a switch for us," sai Taylor. "When we got the lead we didn't need them as much, but they did an excellent job today on the boards and contesting shots in the paint."
 
Already 2-2 from long range over the first quarter, McNece kept her hot start going as she sank her third trey in as many tries to move the Mids ahead by eight, 21-13 by the 8:38 mark. The three-ball kept Navy's success going as Smith found the bottom of the net at 4:29 to make it a 26-17 game. The teams exchanged baskets over the next three minutes as Navy's lead volleyed between seven and 11 points. Back up nine, 32-23 and possessing the ball for the last shot of the half, Smith raced down the court after grabbing a defensive rebound and hit a pull-up jumper just as the clock expired to give the Mids an 11-point lead of 34-23 going into the locker room.

The third quarter was evenly matched as Navy was able to add one point to its lead with a 13-12 edge in scoring for the period. The Mids' offense was once again spurred on by three-pointers as McNece increased her team's advantage to 12 points (37-25) at 8:01 before hitting from distance again over four and a half minutes later at 3:30 to bump Navy back up by double-digits. With the score 42-32 following McNece's second trey of the quarter, Barnett-Gay and Smith added five points to the Mids' tally over the final two minutes of the quarter with Smith adding a three-pointer for the exclamation point.

Up 47-35, Navy broke out its largest lead of the day 45 seconds into the fourth quarter when Smith knocked down a long jumper to make it a 14-point advantage for the hosts. Lafayette slowly scratched three points off its deficit before Barnett-Gay rattled home a response for the Mids to make it 51-38 with 4:54 left in regulation. An 8-0 retort by the Leopards over the next 3:37 tightened the contest to 51-46 before the bend, not break mentality of Navy shown through over the final minute of play with five made free throws over eight trips to the foul line. Lafayette had no significant answer during this run as they tacked on just one point to conclude the game at 56-47.

"That was an ugly fourth quarter because I decided we should try and milk the clock," commented Taylor. "Offensively, we didn't have much rhythm, but most importantly the clock was running. We were trying to move the basketball and get into position with the clock under 10 seconds every possession. We had a 12-point lead and wanted to run 25-to-30 seconds off every possession. We were trying to limit how many times they'd be able to touch the ball. The players out there for us understood what we trying to do; break the press and slow it down. Defensively down the stretch, we were competing so hard. That's a testament to this team; there's no quit."

For the game, Navy outshot Lafayette, 32.2 percent (19-59) to 31.0 (18-58) from the field and 33.3 percent (9-27) to 29.4 (5-17) from three-point range. Both teams shot 75.0 percent from the foul line as the Mids finished 9-12, while the Leopards were 6-8.

The close statistical totals continued in the rebounding category as both teams tied with 41 caroms, 13 on the offensive end and 28 on the defensive side. Barnett-Gay paced the Mids with eight rebounds, one more than Samson, who grabbed seven.

Navy was fairly clean with its ball-handling with a 12-to-14 assist-to-turnover ratio. Smith was the leading facilitator with three assists on Saturday.

Defensively, the Mids forced the Leopards into 15 turnovers and were credited with nine steals. Barnett-Gay (4), Smith (3) and Louridas (2) recorded all of the steals for Navy. Samson finished with a game-high three blocks down in the post.

The Mids will be continue early-season Patriot League action on Wednesday with a road tilt versus the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. The Navy-Lehigh contest is set for a 6 p.m. tip-off in Bethlehem, Pa.