BOSTON – The Navy women's basketball team opened the Patriot League portion of its 2023-24 schedule with a hard-fought 62-51 defeat on the road at Boston University on Wednesday afternoon. Playing the first of three straight games against the Patriot League's preseason top-three teams, a spirited Midshipmen (4-8, 0-1 PL) squad found itself in an early hole against a Terrier (9-3, 1-0 PL) team that was picked second overall in the preseason poll. Unfazed by a double-digit first half deficit, Navy battled all 40 minutes at BU's Case Gym and came within four points with less than five minutes to go in the fourth quarter before the hosts pulled away late for the 11-point victory.

Zanai Barnett-Gay (Fr., Glenn Dale, Md.) led all scorers in the Patriot League season opener for both teams with a game-high 23 points. The reigning conference rookie of the week, she added three rebounds, two assists and a game-high five steals to her strong individual stat line. Sydne Watts (Sr., Canton, Ga.) and Maren Louridas (So., Delmar, N.Y.) combined to net 15 points of secondary scoring as Watts went for eight, while Louridas tallied seven to go along with a team-high eight rebounds.

"We went through a tough stretch early on in the game when they went on a 14-2 run in the first quarter, but if you look out our play, we didn't have many turnovers it was just that our shots were rattling in and out," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "I felt like we had good looks, but we just weren't making shots. What was disappointing to me was our stretch at the end of the third quarter where we couldn't handle the press. I probably should've called a timeout there, but I had already called two earlier in the game.

"It's going to take a little bit of time, but I think if we continue with that effort and continue to grow from today's game we'll be pretty good. I thought Morganne Andrews played well; I thought Lizzie Holder came off the bench and gave us great minutes. Z was tough and was out there for nearly the entire 40 minutes. Toni Papahronis played a really strong game. Maren continues to get better and better; it might not show up in her point totals, but all-around she did a great job on the glass and passing. I thought we executed really well, but we just couldn't get some of those shots to fall. Boston is a veteran team. They did a really good job at the end and I think our inexperience showed."
  
The Mids darted out to an early 9-6 lead on the strength of a pair of Kate Samson (So., Richmond, Va.) field goals and a Louridas three-pointer. Barnett-Gay added the fourth made basket during this initial run of play. From that point at 7:26, the host Terriers scored 14 of the next 16 points to take nine-point lead into the first quarter intermission, 20-11.

The hosts continued out-pacing the Mids to start the second quarter with six unanswered points to go up a then- game-high 15 points. Navy swung the momentum back in its favor with six straight points of its own, four from Barnett-Gay and two from Kyah Smith (Fr., Richmond, Va.) to make it 26-17. The six-point runs repeated itself twice more over the final 5:15 of play in the first half as Boston went up 31-17 by the 1:48 mark before Navy responded with back-to-back three-pointers by Watts and Barnett-Gay at 1:30 and 1:04, respectively. A single free throw by the Terriers' Anastasia Semenova concluded the scoring at 33-23.

The Mids came out of the locker room after halftime on a mission as they made three of their first five shots, including treys once again by Barnett-Gay and Watts. A steal by Watts and breakaway layup by Barnett-Gay capped this early second half surge to make it 37-31 at 7:13. A four-time Patriot League Rookie of the Week honoree, Barnett-Gay kept up her scalding shooting touch in the third quarter with two more baskets to draw the visitors to within four, 39-35 at 5:07. Feeling threatened, the reigning Patriot League regular season champions flexed their muscles over the next two-plus minutes with an 8-0 run, that eventually expanded to close out the quarter at 11-2.

Trailing 50-37 through three quarters, Navy began making in-roads on BU's lead midway through the fourth period when Louridas netted successive baskets off of Terrier turnovers. With the score 52-43 at 5:45, the Mids kept the pressure up on the Terriers and saw Barnett-Gay successfully deposit a three-pointer from the wing and Lizzie Holder (Fr., Stillwater, Minn.) intercept a pass and go in unimpeded for a fast break layup to make it a 52-48 game by 4:28. The experienced BU squad showcased their veteran prowess down the stretch and locked down Navy offensively to the tune of just three points on 1-8 shooting with three turnovers, while slowly extending its margin of victory out to 11, 62-51.

For the game, Boston out-shot Navy, 49.0 percent (24-49) to 34.4 (21-61) from the field, 35.7 percent (5-14) to 28.6 (6-21) from three-point range and 64.3 percent (9-14) to 50.0 (3-6) from the free throw line.

The Terriers won the rebounding battle, 39-28 on Wednesday, though the Mids were able to grab two more offensive caroms, 9-7. Louridas led Navy's effort on the glass with eight rebounds. Morganne Andrews (Sr., Martinsburg, W.Va.) aided the Mids with five rebounds of her own.

Defensively, Navy forced Boston into 23 turnovers and was credited with 15 steals. Barnett-Gay led the swarming defensive work with five thefts. Andrews, Holder, Louridas and Watts all added two steals each.

"Every experience that this young group goes through will make them better," said Taylor in closing. "They played and competed for 40 minutes against the defending regular season champ on the road. It's going to be a roller coaster for us this season, but we're trying to make this more of a Scooby Doo roller coaster and less of The Intimidator. We had some really good performances today, our lineup in the fourth quarter got them [BU] rattled and were really playing hard. Giannaros' three-pointer late in the fourth was a dagger. People don't realize how good Caitlin Weimar is and how hard it is to guard her. She makes it so hard to prepare for Boston; she's so dominant. I thought we did a good job on her and she still ended up with 19 points and 14 rebounds."
 
Navy will continue its difficult run of road tilts on Saturday with a long trip to Hamilton, N.Y. for a 2 p.m. showdown versus Colgate. The matchup between the Mids and Raiders will be the third straight on the road for Navy over a seven-day span.