ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team put together its most complete effort of the 2023-24 season with 40 minutes of crisp action on both ends of the court at Alumni Hall on Wednesday night in a 62-46 victory over Lehigh. Up by seven at the end of the first quarter, the Mids (7-13, 3-6 PL) kept their foot on the gas pedal offensively and extended their lead out to as much as 24 mid-way through the fourth quarter, while its defense turned the Mountain Hawks (12-8, 4-5 PL) over 19 times and held them to more than 26 points under their season-long scoring average of 72.2 points per game.

Navy was led on the offensive end by 40 combined points from its talented freshmen backcourt duo of Zanai Barnett-Gay (Glenn Dale, Md.) and Kyah Smith (Richmond, Va.). Barnett-Gay recorded her fifth double-double of the season and third in three games with 21 points and 10 rebounds to go along with five assists and three steals. Smith netted 19 points with three assists and two steals over 33 minutes of action. Maren Louridas (So., Delmar, N.Y.) was everywhere for the Mids on Wednesday with nine points, eight rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots.

"This is a process and it's taken us a while, but every time we defend, we win," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "When you hold teams to under 50 points and close to 30 percent shooting, all of a sudden you're got yourself a win. Normally, we can score the ball at a decent pace so it comes down to our defense; what an effort tonight. Z and Kyah were unbelievable, but let me tell you, you've got to tip your hat to Toni Papahronis tonight. She was out there battling, she got some steals and really affected their post-ups. That's where Lehigh beat us last time by getting the ball into the block all night long. Tonight, they rarely were able to get in there.

"Our players knew where they needed to be defensively. Early in the season and off-and-on during league play we've been inconsistent with getting into the right spots defensively. We had good depth and forced Lehigh to move the ball back-and-forth. We have some players with active hands so we were able to make things happen. That was fun to watch!"

The action on Wednesday night opened evenly with both teams netting five points over the initial three minutes. Louridas kick-started Navy's offense with a three-pointer on the team's first possession. A single free throw by Toni Papahronis (So., Edmond, Okla.) at 6:49 gave the Mids a lead that they wouldn't relinquish for the next 36-plus minutes as Navy quickly built out a 13-8 advantage over the next three minutes as part of an 8-3 run. Smith paced the Mids during this span with five points, including her first three-pointer of the game. Ahead by five, Navy extended its lead down the stretch with baskets by Sydne Watts (Sr., Canton, Ga.) and Morganne Andrews (Sr., Martinsburg, W.Va.) to close the quarter up 17-10. The Mids' defense was active in the first period with nine forced turnovers on six steals, while the ever-dangerous Mountain Hawk three-point shooting barrage was held to just 1-6 from long range. Coming into Wednesday night, Lehigh averaged 8.6 three-pointers a game.

Up seven coming out of the quarter break, the teams traded baskets over the first five minutes of the period and the score advanced to 24-18 at 4:59 when Barnett-Gay grabbed an offensive rebound and immediately fired up a shot that passed through the basket, while getting fouled for an eventual 'and-one' conversion. Navy's offense kept clicking as Smith converted her own 'and-one' 30 seconds later. With the score 29-22 with two minutes left in the second quarter, the dynamic freshmen duo went back-to-back to round out the period with Barnett-Gay netting her 12th and 13th points of the half, while Smith broke into double figures with a pull-up jumper to make it 33-22 at the half. The two plebes recorded 14 of Navy's 16 points in the period.

Already thriving defensively, the Mids' pressure dominated the first two minutes of the third quarter as the Mountain Hawks turned the ball over on each of their first three possessions, while Navy's offense countered with four straight baskets capped by Smith's three-pointer in transition at 8:15 that made it 42-22. An 8-0 rebuttal by Lehigh tightened the margin to 12 by the 5:44 mark of the quarter and later was extended to 12-3 to make it 45-34 a minute later. Bending, but not breaking, the Mids re-engaged its potent offense over the final four minutes with a run of four baskets over five possessions to go back up by 17, 53-36 before the end of the quarter. Navy was especially active in the paint with 14 of its 20 points coming from driving layups and post-ups during the third period.

In control of the scoreboard to start the final quarter of play, the Mids slowly built out its lead to a game-high 24 points with seven unanswered points over the first five minutes. Smith, Barnett-Gay, Louridas and Papahronis all contributed points during this span to make it 60-36. With the result all but clinched, Lehigh shaved eight points off its deficit over the final minutes of play to conclude the game at 62-46 in favor of Navy.

For the game, Navy out-shot Lehigh in all three facets of the game, 39.7 percent (27-68) to 31.4 (16-51) from the field, 28.6 percent (4-14) to 20.8 (5-24) from three-point range and 66.7 (4-6) to 64.3 (9-14) from the foul line.

"When Z and Kyah are scoring and add in Sydne Watts and Kate Samson that's a tough group to defend when we're clicking," said Taylor in closing. "Losing Kate late in the Loyola game hurt us because she's been playing so well the last three games. When we add her back that just adds another dimension. Maren is starting to heat up offensively with two more three-pointers tonight. If Z and Kyah keep doing what they're doing, we have the pieces around them to add to our attack; we can be pretty good."

In the rebounding battle, Lehigh edged out Navy by one, 40-39, though the Mids were more active on the offensive glass with a 12-10 advantage. Barnett-Gay paced Navy with 10 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season. Louridas added eight boards of her own, while Andrews snagged five coming off the bench.

The Mids were extremely clean with their ball-handling on Wednesday night as they posted a 13-to-9 assist-to-turnover ratio. Barnett-Gay was the leading facilitator with a game-high five helpers.

Defensively, Navy forced Lehigh into 19 turnovers and was credited with 10 steals. Barnett-Gay (4), Papahronis (3) and Smith (2) all tallied multiple steals. Additionally, the Mids blocked four Mountain Hawk shots with Louridas turning aside a pair to lead her team.

Navy will be back at home on Saturday as it hosts Colgate in a rematch of their Jan. 6 bout in Hamilton, N.Y. that went the way of the Raiders. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. at Alumni Hall.