ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy women's basketball team will be aiming to build off this past weekend's win over Lafayette, while not looking too far ahead with a Saturday service academy showdown against Army lying ahead with a road matchup at Lehigh on Wednesday evening. Through two weeks of Patriot League action. the Mids (5-10, 1-3 PL) and Mountain Hawks (9-6, 1-3 PL) find themselves tied for fifth place alongside three other squads and will be looking to separate from that pack with a victory on Wednesday night at Stabler Arena. Tip-off between Lehigh and Navy is set for 6 p.m.

The Navy-Lehigh 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. 

Navy vs. Lehigh
The Mids and Mountain Hawks have met 69 times in a series that began on December 8, 1981 ... All-time, Lehigh leads Navy by three wins, 36-33 ... The tight series is also split near evenly among the venues as the Mountain Hawks are 20-15 at home versus an 18-16 advantage for the Mids in Annapolis ... Since the Mids joined the Patriot League in 1991-92, the series is slanted in Lehigh's favor, 35-30 ... Over the last ten matchups, Lehigh has a 9-1 advantage over Navy, with the Mountain Hawks sweeping the four most recent season series in 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023 ... Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the two programs didn't meet during the 2021 portion of the Patriot League season ... Navy's last victory over Lehigh occurred on Jan. 27. 2018 in Annapolis when the Mids held on for a 53-50 win; their last win in Bethlehem was Jan. 18, 2017 by a 66-64 final score.
    Last Five Games:
    Feb. 15, 2023 (H): Lehigh 72 - Navy 38
    Jan. 8, 2023 (A): Lehigh 77 - Navy 42
    March 2, 2022 (H): Lehigh 64 - Navy 42  
    Jan. 19, 2022 (A): Lehigh 99 - Navy 65
    Jan. 15, 2020 (H): Lehigh 60 - Navy 53

Most Recent Navy-Lehigh Matchup ~ February 15, 2023 in Annapolis
Coming off an emotional game on Saturday against its archrival Army and faced with a matchup against the Patriot League's highest-scoring team, Lehigh, the Navy women's basketball team had its hands full on Wednesday night. The Mids didn't let any of that initially affect them as they jumped out to a 12-10 lead through one quarter of play before the explosive Mountain Hawks overtook them in the second period and rolled in the second half with a 40-15 scoring advantage on their way to an eventual 72-38 victory at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.
 
Lindsay Llewellyn bolstered Navy's offensive effort with a team-high 15 points, including all 11 of her squad's points in the second quarter. Morganne Andrews was active throughout the contest with seven points, a team-high 10 rebounds, two assists and two steals. Off the bench, Sam Schofield hit a pair of three-pointers in the second half for the Mids.

Navy opened the action on Wednesday night fast with a quick 6-2 lead over the initial 2:45 of play. Sydne Watts was effective early for the Mids with perfect 2-2 showing during this stretch. Over the next two minutes, Lehigh dug out of its early hole and pulled even 6-6 by the 5:18 mark of the quarter. A trading of baskets by Andrews and the Mountain Hawks' Lily Fandre advanced the score up to 8-8 a minute later. Consecutive field goals by Llewellyn and Kate Samson helped Navy re-take its four-point lead by 1:22. With the score 12-8, a late bucket by Lehigh's Mackenzie Kramer closed the quarter at 12-10.
 
That field goal in the closing seconds by Kramer sparked her game as the junior opened up the second period with five more unanswered points to help the Mountain Hawks push out to a 15-12 lead. From that point at 7:38, Lehigh never looked back. Overall, they scored 10 of the first 12 points of the second quarter to open up a 20-14 advantage by 5:23. A three-pointer by Llewellyn at 4:29 stopped that burst and drew Navy back within three points. An immediate 8-1 rebuttal by Lehigh gave the visitors a 10-point edge before Llewellyn continued her individual effort with a layup and three-pointer on back-to-back possessions at 1:49 and 1:32. With the score 28-23, Lehigh scored the final four points of the half to take a nine-point lead into the locker room. After shooting just 1-6 from the field in the first quarter, Llewellyn recorded all 11 of her team's points in the second quarter by going 4-6 from the floor, including a perfect 2-2 from three-point range and one free throw.
 
Coming out of the halftime intermission with the score 32-23 in favor of Lehigh, that nine-point margin stayed over the opening four minutes of the third quarter with both teams sinking three baskets. Maren Louridas was the catalyst for Navy's early success with a pair of those makes. Ahead 39-30 at 6:19, the Mountain Hawks then ran off 12 unanswered points over the next 5:10 to break out to a 51-30 advantage. Schofield ended the Mids' scoring drought with a step-back three-pointer with 53 seconds left in the period.
 
Early in the fourth quarter, Schofield's number was called again when Mimi Schrader drove through the lane and whipped an over-the-shoulder pass to Schofield, who caught and fired away from the left wing for her second three-pointer in as many quarters at 7:22. With the score 55-36, Lehigh controlled the remainder of the game and closed out the contest on a 17-2 run to win by a final score of 72-38.
 
For the contest, Lehigh outshot Navy, 42.9 percent (24-56) to 27.1 (16-59) from the field, 47.4 percent (9-19) to 21.1 (4-19) from three-point range and 88.2 percent (15-17) to 33.3 (2-6) from the foul line.

Comparing the Teams

(2023-24 Stats)	Navy	Lehigh
Record / League-Only	5-10, 1-3 PL	9-6 / 1-3 PL
Home / Away / Neut. Record	5-4 / 0-6	4-3 / 4-2 / 1-1
Points Per Game	62.3 PPG	72.5 PPG
Points Allowed Per Game	68.1 PPG	67.1 PPG
Field Goal Percentage	38.0 %	41.5 %
3-Point Percentage	26.6 %	30.1 %
Free Throw Percentage	63.2 %	78.1 %
Rebounds Per Game	36.9 RPG	38.9 RPG
Assists/Turnovers Per Game	12.6 / 16.2	16.4 / 16.9

Individual Leaders

(2023-24 Stats)	Navy	Lehigh
Points Per Game	Zanai Barnett-Gay, 18.4 ppg	Ella Stemmer, 14.7 ppg
Rebounds Per Game	Z. Barnett-Gay, 5.6 rpg	Meghan O'Brien, 6.4 rpg
Assists Per Game	Z. Barnett-Gay, 3.3 apg	Colleen McQuillen, 4.5 apg
Field Goal Percentage	Sydne Watts, 42.2 %	Maddie Albrecht, 49.2 %
3-Point Percentage	Z. Barnett-Gay, 30.8 %	Lily Fandre, 36.8 %
Free Throw Percentage	Kyah Smith, 73.3 %	C. McQuillen/Whitney Lind, 86.7 %

Last Time Out -- Saturday vs. Lafayette
Navy 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, Violet McNece and Zanai Barnett-Gay 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.

Trailing 9-2 at 5:23, the newly-inserted McNece left her mark as crisp ball-movement resulted with Kate Samson 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 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.

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.

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.