ANNAPOLIS, Md. – An ice-cold start to its game versus Toledo on the first day of the 2024 Navy Classic put the Navy women's basketball team in a hole that if would not be able to overcome on Saturday afternoon as it fell from the ranks of the undefeated. Defensively, the Mids (6-1) held the Rockets (4-1) to 28 percent (5-18) shooting in the opening frame, but a 1-17 mark on the other side of the ledger saw the hosts behind 13-2 through 10 minutes of play. Showing grit and fight throughout the action at Alumni Hall, Navy drew to within two points of Toledo in fourth quarter before dropping the final decision, 58-51.

Zanai Barnett-Gay (So., Glenn Dale, Md.) and Mary Gibbons (Fr., Holden, Mass.) led the Mids' individual performers as the underclass duo combined for 35 points, a team-high 18 for Barnett-Gay and 17 for Gibbons. Barnett-Gay added to her strong effort with team-highs of eight rebounds, four steals and two assists over 35 minutes of action. Off the bench, Gibbons shot 7-13 with three three-pointers, while grabbing five rebounds in 28 minutes. Kyah Smith (So., Richmond, Va.) was the third Navy player in double figures as she scored 12 points.

"I felt that we got really good looks and took great shots in the first quarter," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "That 1-17 number wasn't for lack of getting good shots. We had a couple of easy layups, that were right there. It just felt like there was a lid on the basket. I've got to give credit to our kids, Toledo is a really good team; they've got a lot of weapons. We turned them over 22 times and we only turned it over 11.

"I think we had some defensive lapses when we cut it to two mid-way through the fourth. We didn't rotate like we needed to, but that'll happen with young players that are still learning how to do that. Toledo is a seasoned basketball team. We didn't really have an answer for number 33 [Sammi Mikonowicz]. We gave up way too many [19] offensive rebounds that resulted in 32 points in the paint and 15 second-chance points. They've got four grad students in their rotation and we had sophomores and freshmen playing the majority of the minutes down the stretch. It was just one of those days. There's a lot of positives to take away from this game. We kept fighting to the end."

The action on Saturday opened with Toledo dominating the first four minutes to the tune of a 9-0 advantage on 4-6 shooting. Sammi Mikonowicz was everywhere for the Rockets during this opening stretch with all nine points. After Gibbons got Navy on the scoreboard with an offensive rebound and putback at 5:37, the score was frozen at 9-2 for over four-and-a-half minutes until Toledo sank a pair of baskets in the final 76 seconds. Gibbons' make was the only successful field goal for Navy as the Mids shot 5.9 percent (1-17) in the quarter. The Rockets weren't significantly more potent as they shot just 27.8 percent (5-18) and turned the ball over six times.

Trailing 13-2, Navy got its offense in gear early in the second quarter with six points over its first four possessions to cut Toledo's lead to just seven, 15-8 by the 8:11 mark and later 17-10 at 6:44. The Rockets scored the next five points to take its largest lead of the game, 22-10, at 2:31. As the teams traded baskets over the next 60 seconds, a pull-up jumper by Gibbons with 43 seconds remaining and a Smith banked-in three-point with 10 seconds left send the game into the halftime intermission at 24-17.

A diagrammed play for Kate Samson (Jr., Richmond, Va.) in Navy's first possession of the third quarter drew the Mids to within five points of the Rockets just 15 seconds in. Long range marksmenship by Gibbons three minutes late advanced the score to 28-22. That six-point deficit was short-lived as Mikonowicz drove through the lane and put Toledo up eight. That field goal was the spark for a slight 6-2 run that helped the Rockets increase its advantage into double-digits once again, 34-24 by the 3:04 juncture of the quarter. A dominant 50-second stretch between 2:39 and 1:49 saw Smith lead off with a jumper before Barnett-Gay hit a three-pointer with a steal and score to follow in quick succession. With the score 34-31, Mikonowicz was the throne in Navy's side once again as she recorded the final field goal of the quarter to give her 17 of Toledo's 36 points through 30 minutes.

Ahead by five to start the fourth quarter, the Rockets scored the first five points to push their lead back to 10. Down, but not out, the Mids kept up the fight and rattled off eight unanswered points over a three-possession span with the first five coming from Barnett-Gay before Gibbons capped the run with her second trey of the day. From that point at 7:27 when it was 41-39, Toledo fired back with eight straight of its own. That run could have spelled the end for Navy, but the team's unwavering belief in itself, saw it score 12 of the next 18 points to put back within four, 55-51 with 1:03 left in regulation. Three-pointers by Gibbons and Smith book-ended this run. A 3-4 effort at the foul line over the final 63 seconds helped Toledo lock up the 58-51 victory.  

"We talk about 'what are you going to do when you can't make shots, are we going to keep competing?' I'd say we did that; we competed for 40 minutes and fought right to the end," commented Taylor. "I'm proud of this team. I don't like the loss; we expect to win every game, but there's plenty we can take from today.
 
"We're going to have games where we can't throw it in the ocean. Usually, you're going to have three of those a year, about 15 percent of the season, and then you'll have 15 percent where you can't miss. It's who you are on the other 70 percent of the games that's going to matter. My big thing is 'you fight all 40 minutes and you keep trying to get better. At the end of the year, watch what happens."

For the game, Toledo out-shot Navy from the field, 35.0 percent (21-60) to 28.0 (21-75) and from the foul line, 63.2 percent (12-19) to 50.0 (2-4). The Mids had a nominal edge in three-point shooting, 25.9 percent (7-27) to 25.0 (4-16).

Toledo dominated the rebounding battle, 59-38 with a 19-14 advantage in offensive rebounds. Barnett-Gay paced Navy with eight caroms.

Defensively, the Mids forced the Rockets into 22 turnovers and was credited with nine steals. Barnett-Gay led all players with four thefts. As a team, Navy blocked five Toledo shots; Samson recorded a game-high two rejections.

"Today was a really good test for us," said Taylor in closing. "We didn't play our best against a really good Toledo team and we were still right there. We have three really, really good teams playing in this tournament this weekend. Those teams are what we're trying to become."

The Mids will have a quick turnaround as day two of the 2024 Navy Classic will see the team host George Mason in a 1 p.m. contest at Alumni Hall on Sunday afternoon. The Patriots lost a battle of its own on Saturday to the No. 10 Maryland Terrapins, 66-56 in the second game of the Navy Classic.