ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy women's basketball team will have the brights lights of a national tv audience shining on it on Saturday morning in the first matchup of the home-and-home 2024 Army-Navy series. In a rivalry that dates back to 1981, the Black Knights hold just a one-game lead over the 81 previous meetings and Saturday's clash promises to be just as close as the two service academy rivals both come in with five wins this season with the Black Knights (5-10, 2-3 PL) sitting one game up in the Patriot League standings over the Midshipmen (5-11, 1-4 PL). Army and Navy each have some momentum as both squads have picked up one win over their past two outings, the Mids last Saturday and Black Knights on Wednesday. Tip-off for the contest that will air on the CBS Sports Network is set for 11 a.m. from Alumni Hall.

Navy versus Army
The Mids and Black Knights have met 81 times in a series that began on January 18, 1981  ... All-time, Army has a one-game edge, 41-40 ... The series is tied in nearly every possible way with it being 19-19 in West Point, 3-3 at neutral sites and 19-18 in favor of Army in Annapolis ... Navy has held the home court advantage recently with four wins in the last six contests at Alumni Hall ... The Senior Class of 2024 split the series evenly with both sides earning one win a year over 2021 and 2022 before Army earned both victories in 2023 with the Star going to the Black Knights in a dramatic 66-64 contest  ... Over the last ten matchups, the overall series leans towards the Black Knights by a 7-3 margin.
    Last Five Games:
    Feb. 11, 2023 (H): Army 66 - Navy 64 **2023 Star Game
    Jan. 21, 2023 (A): Army 75 - Navy 61
    Feb. 12, 2022 (A): Army 70 - Navy 66 **2022 Star Game
    Jan. 22, 2022 (H): Navy 61 - Army 60
    Jan. 24, 2021 (A): Army 63 - Navy 58

Most Recent Navy-Army Matchup ... February 11, 2023 in Annapolis
Navy left it all out on the line on Saturday in a service academy battle for the ages with archrival Army. Back-and-forth throughout the 40 minutes of action at Alumni Hall before a national television audience, a layup by Army's Trinity Hardy with two seconds remaining in regulation gave the visiting Black Knights the come-from-behind, 66-64 victory over the Mids. With the win Army secured the 2023 Women's Basketball Star.

Playing in her final Star game, Lindsay Llewellyn was a standout for the Mids as she recorded her first career double-double with a dominant 25-point, 10-rebound performance over 39 minutes of action. Both her point and rebounding totals were career-highs. Additionally, Llewellyn had four assists and drew 10 personal fouls. Sydne Watts and Maren Louridas were strong in support of Llewellyn as each player recorded 13 points.

Tight throughout the contest, neither team broke out to more than a three-point lead the entire first quarter as an early 6-5 lead for Army by the 5:24 mark was answered back at 3:38 by Morganne Andrews, who grabbed an offensive rebound and quickly bounced up for the putback. The Black Knights lived and died with the three-point shot in the first quarter as a third triple of the frame at 2:42 by Natalie Rhine allowed the visitors to re-take the lead, 9-7. Navy was able to use the long ball to its benefit down the stretch as both Louridas and Watts hit nothing but the bottom of the net on their three-point attempts to push the Mids ahead at the quarter break, 14-13.
 
With Navy negating looks in the paint to Army's dominant senior duo of Kam Hall and Sabria Hunter (they took just three combined shots in the first quarter), the Black Knights dialed up the three-ball again early in the second quarter to knot the game at 16-16 courtesy of a Lauren Lithgow trey at 8:24. From that juncture, the Mids found their next gear and streaked ahead on a 11-3 run over the next 5:18. All parts of Navy's game was working during this run as four different players scored from all three levels, including a dramatic shot clock buzzer beater from Sam Schofield at 5:15. Ahead 27-19, the Mids kept the foot on the gas and eventually built out a 12-point lead of 35-23 with 66 seconds remaining in the first half. Louridas put the exclamation on Navy's largest lead of the game with a three-pointer. A late 5-0 run by Army helped the visitors cut its deficit to just seven points at the halftime intermission.

Foul trouble was the story of the first half as four starters from each team were saddled with two or more fouls. Navy played through its foul trouble and shot 43.3 percent (13-30) from the field and 66.7 percent (4-6) from three-point range. The Mids efficiently assisted on eight of their 13 made baskets.

With the score 35-28 coming out in the second half, the action bounced back-and-forth as the teams traded baskets over the opening five minutes of the third quarter. Watts bolstered the Mids' early push with her team's first five points of the half. Ahead 40-34, Navy increased its lead out to nine, 45-36, by the 3:46 mark after Llewellyn converted an 'and-one' and Louridas knocked down a long jumper. That nine-point margin stayed throughout the next 3:42 until a last-second three-pointer by Natalie Rhine with four seconds left closed Army's deficit to just six points, 48-42.
 
Like any service academy contest, the nip-and-tuck battle raged deep into the game. Both teams opened the fourth quarter evenly with a pair of baskets over the first three minutes to advance the score to 52-46. Already surpassing her previous career-high of 15 points with her first field goal of the fourth period, Llewellyn reached the 20-point plateau for the first-time in her time at Navy with a three-pointer at 6:43 to bubble the Mids' lead out to nine points. After a banked-in corner three-pointer from Army's Kam Hall, Kate Samson answered back with an old-fashioned three-point play with a jumper and an 'and-one' at 5:14. With the score 58-49, the visitors from West Point rattled off nine straight points over a span of under two minutes to knot the game at 58-58 with 3:23 left in regulation.

The neck-and-neck action continued over the next two minutes as Llewellyn scored three points for Navy, while Army rode four points from Sam McNaughton to hold a 62-61 with 1:18 to play. A free throw by Louridas re-tied the score at 62-62 with 59 second left. Llewellyn completed her first double-double as she grabbed her tenth rebound of the game at 0:46 before heading down the court and dropping in her 24th and 25th points of the game with a driving layup 17 seconds later. With the score 64-62 Navy, Army rallied in the closing moments of the game and went 2-2 at the foul line followed by Hardy's game-winning layup with two seconds to go to capture the 66-64 victory.

Comparing the Teams

(2023-24 Stats)	Navy	Army
Record / League-Only	5-11, 1-4 PL	5-10 / 2-3 PL
Home / Away / Neut. Record	5-4 / 0-7	3-6 / 2-4
Points Per Game	62.4 PPG	57.3 PPG
Points Allowed Per Game	68.9 PPG	64.1 PPG
Field Goal Percentage	38.1 %	36.0 %
3-Point Percentage	26.2 %	24.3 %
Free Throw Percentage	64.5 %	70.0 %
Rebounds Per Game	36.9 RPG	33.3 RPG
Assists/Turnovers Per Game	12.3 / 15.9	10.0 / 15.9

Individual Leaders

(2023-24 Stats)	Navy	Army
Points Per Game	Zanai Barnett-Gay, 18.4 ppg	Kya Smith, 10.5 ppg
Rebounds Per Game	Maren Louridas, 5.6 rpg	K. Smith, 8.5 rpg
Assists Per Game	Z. Barnett-Gay, 3.1 apg	Reese Ericson, 2.5 apg
Field Goal Percentage	Sydne Watts, 42.4 %	K. Smith, 47.7 %
3-Point Percentage	Z. Barnett-Gay, 29.1 %	Lauren Lithgow, 32.8 %
Free Throw Percentage	Kyah Smith, 73.3 %	K. Smith, 74.3 %

Last Time Out -- Wednesday at Lehigh
Navy ran into a sharp-shooting Lehigh squad on Wednesday night and fell by a score of 81-65. The Mountain Hawks started out fast with five three-pointers in the first quarter and never slowed down as they nailed 12 total treys on the Mids 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, Maren Louridas and Kyah Smith 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.

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 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 to Morganne Andrews 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 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.

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.