BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Navy women's basketball team ran into a sharp-shooting Lehigh squad on Wednesday night and fell by a score of 81-65. The Mountain Hawks (10-6, 2-3 PL) started out fast with five three-pointers in the first quarter and never slowed down as they nailed 12 total treys on the Mids (5-11, 1-4 PL) in a Patriot League bout at Stabler Arena. A game Navy team was within seven points at the end of the third quarter and down just nine halfway through the fourth quarter before Lehigh pulled away late.

The Mids received balanced scoring from the trio of Zanai Barnett-Gay (Fr., Glenn Dale, Md.), Maren Louridas (So., Delmar, N.Y.) and Kyah Smith (Fr., Richmond, Va.) as they combined for 47 points. Barnett-Gay led Navy with 18 points, while Louridas posted her highest scoring effort of the season as she shot 50 percent (6-12) from the field and 4-4 from the foul line for 16 points in addition to grabbing seven rebounds in 35 minutes of action. Off the bench, Smith tallied 13 points and two assists over 36 minutes.

"We missed some easy baskets tonight," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "That's been the story of our season so far. When you miss those easy looks it can get deflating. On the defensive side of the ball, we had some breakdowns, especially in transition. I thought losing Toni [due to injury] in the second minute of play really hurt us because she's such a good defender with her length and athleticism. Losing her also affected our ability to mix-and-match our backcourt as much as we would've liked with Kyah and Zanai. We really couldn't give either of them a break. It really hurt us in a lot of ways. They were able to take advantage of their length against us once Toni was out and posted our smaller guards up. They're a dangerous team and really started hitting their three-pointers. We weren't rotating as good as we needed to be to affect that part of their game.

"Maren's a better basketball player than she was last year; she's more well-rounded. We know what we can count on from her. She scored 16 tonight without hitting a three-pointer. She made some nice moves and attacked the basket really well. When the threes start falling for her, you're going to start seeing some more big offensive nights from her. Overall, she had a really good game tonight. She's been extremely consistent this season in all facets of the game. Shots you can't control all the time, but you can control your effort, what type of teammate you are, your passing decisions and whether you're going to play defense or not. She's done all of that."

The game opened nearly even as Navy jumped out to an 8-7 lead at 6:24 when Smith sank her first basket of the contest. From that juncture, Lehigh scored 17 of the next 19 points to build up a 24-10 advantage by the 1:33 mark. The Mountain Hawks hit four three-pointers over this run. Field goals by Smith and Sydne Watts (Sr., Canton, Ga.) over the final 70 seconds drew the Mids within 10 points before an Ella Stemmer layup at the buzzer gave the hosts a 26-14 lead after one quarter of play.

Navy kick-started its comeback in the second quarter and came out of the gates on an 8-2 run over the first three minutes. Four different Mids contributed to this success as Barnett-Gay, Watts, Smith and Louridas all found the bottom of the net. The teams traded baskets over the next 3:30 as the score advanced to 35-29. A crisp series of passes in the paint from Lizzie Holder (Fr., Stillwater, Minn.) to Morganne Andrews (Sr., Martinsburg, W.Va.) resulted in Navy cutting its deficit to just four points at 2:59. A 5-2 close to the half sent the teams to the locker room with Lehigh up 40-33. Navy's 19-14 advantage in the quarter was spearheaded by a perfect 4-to-0 assist-to-turnover ratio and a 47.1 percent (8-17) shooting performance.

The third quarter had two significant momentum swings as the Mountain Hawks opened with 15-4 run to go ahead 55-37 by 4:58. The Mids re-centered themselves after these early struggles and fired back with a 14-3 retort to close the period. Kate Samson (So., Richmond, Va.) was a leading player in this stretch for Navy as she scored six points and blocked a pair of shots on defense. Louridas added four points of her own to back-up her fellow sophomore. All three of Lehigh's points were from the foul line as Navy's defense forced the Mountain Hawks into eight straight missed field goal attempts.

With the score 58-51 and just one quarter of action remaining, Lehigh extended its lead back into double-digits with seven of the first nine points of the fourth stanza. Trailing 66-53, Smith and Louridas scored within 23 seconds of each other to quickly get Navy back within nine points with 6:38 left in regulation. Eight consecutive points by Lehigh's leading scorer Ella Stemmer helped her squad build out its then-largest lead of the game, 74-57. Four straight free throw conversions by Barnett-Gay and Louridas made it a 13-point margin, though unfortunately for the visitors, that would be as close as they would get for the remaining 3:17 of play in the contest as Lehigh held on for the 81-65 victory.

For the game, Lehigh out-shot Navy, 48.3 percent (29-60) to 39.7 (27-68) from the field, 42.9 percent (12-28) to 11.1 (1-9) from three-point range and 91.7 percent (11-12) to 90.9 (10-11) from the foul line.

Navy won the rebounding battle by one on Wednesday night, 37-36. The Mids' effort was bolstered by a 15-9 advantage in offensive rebounds. Gia Pissott (So., Toms River, N.J.) and Louridas led Navy with respective rebounding totals of nine and seven.  

Defensively, the Mids turned the Mountain Hawks over 12 times and were credited with six steals. Louridas led the way with a pair of steals. Samson added to the defensive output with three blocks.

"We're definitely looking forward to Saturday," said Taylor in closing. "They [Army] were on the road today and we were on the road today. Hopefully we can get Toni back for that game because that'd be a big loss. We're excited for our freshmen to get a chance to play in their first Army-Navy game and be a part of that great atmosphere. As a team, we'll have to be better defensively."

Navy will be back in action versus service academy rival Army on Saturday morning in a nationally televised home tilt. The Mids and Black Knights will go head-to-head live on CBS Sports Network starting at 11 a.m. at Alumni Hall.