ANNAPOLIS, Md. – A tough shooting performance in the first half and ineffectiveness in converting offensive rebounds into second chance points held back the Navy women's basketball team throughout the majority of the game versus Dartmouth on Wednesday night before a late fourth quarter rally forced overtime. In the extra period, the visiting Big Green (3-3) out-scored the Mids (6-3), 8-5 to clinch the 61-58 victory at Alumni Hall in a non-conference matchup.

Zanai Barnett-Gay (Glenn Dale, Md.) tied Dartmouth's Victoria Page with a game-high 26 points. The talented sophomore guard added nine rebounds, an assist and a steal to her stat line on Wednesday night. Kate Samson (Jr., Richmond, Va.) posted a strong all-around line in support with nine rebounds, a career-high 16 rebounds and four blocks over a season-high 35 minutes of action. Maren Louridas (Jr., Delmar, N.Y.) also was active on the glass versus the Big Green as she tied her career-high with 11 rebounds to go along with six points.

"Frankly, we didn't deserve to win tonight," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "They [Dartmouth] out-played us and they out-hustled us. We didn't defend well enough to win. We competed hard throughout and got back into it; we hit some shots at the end, but early on we didn't defend anyone; we let one player [Victoria Page] score 17 of their 21 points in the first half and then we let them get 22 point in the third quarter. It's disappointing; you don't hear me say that often about this team, but I didn't think our effort was good enough. Hats off to Dartmouth, I thought their effort was there and they scrapped and fought all 45 minutes. It was just a frustrating night for us.

"I am proud of the way we fought. I thought Nia [Henley] came in off the bench and gave us quality minutes and did some good things there."

The action on Wednesday night opened evenly as it was 5-5 after two minutes of play as Louridas kick-started the Mids' effort with a three-pointer 24 seconds in. After a Victoria Page trey made it 8-5 at 7:47, the Big Green went silent for the next 7:45 with 14 straight misses. Navy was able to take advantage of this cold streak with eight unanswered points; two each from Barnett-Gay, Julianna Almeida (Fr., North Arlington, N.J.), Mary Gibbons (Fr., Holden, Mass.) and Nia Henley (Fr., Spotsylvania, Va.). Up 13-8, the Mids were unable to close out the quarter up five as Page completed her individual 10-point quarter with a pull-up jumper at the buzzer. As a team, Dartmouth shot 4-21 with Page going 4-8 and her teammates combining for a 0-13 mark.

Nearly as cold shooting at 23.5 percent (4-17), but ahead on the scoreboard 13-10, the Mids couldn't engage its offense for almost the entire second quarter as they made just two field goals, a Barnett-Gay driving layup at 3:40 that made it 18-15 in favor of Dartmouth and another Barnett-Gay layup at 1:38 that sent the game into the locker room at 21-17. In the 11-4 quarter, the Big Green was just 3-11 (27.3 percent) from the field, while the Mids were 2-22 (9.1 percent). The storyline of the first half, that would carry over into the second half and overtime was Navy's inability to convert offensive rebounds into second chance points, as the Mids grabbed 12 o-boards in the opening 20 minutes of play, but only had two points to show for their tenacity on the glass.

The third quarter was the highest scoring period of the game as the teams combined for 40 points. Back-to-back post-up jumpers by Samson over the Mids' first two possessions immediately knotted the game at 21-21. Following an Alexandra Eldredge basket at 8:20, Barnett-Gay gave Navy its first lead of the second half with a three-pointer on the wing from a Samson kick-out. The back-and-forth efficient scorefest continued as the teams traded the lead and ties for the next three-plus minutes. With the score tied at 30-30 at 5:15, the visitors rattled off 13 of the final 18 points of the quarter to break out to a 43-35 lead after 30 minutes of play.

Trailing by eight, Navy's comeback took some time to get into gear in the fourth as Dartmouth scored three of the first four points to go up 10, 46-36 by the 8:44 juncture. After calling a timeout, the Mids came out firing on all cylinders and scored seven straight points over the next three minutes. A 2-2 showing at the foul line by Gibbons was followed up by a three-pointer from Lizzie Holder (So., Stillwater, Minn.) and a driving layup by Barnett-Gay in quick succession. Down by just three, 46-43, Navy kept chipping away as Barnett-Gay's clutch marksmanship drew her squad within two, 53-51 with her second three-pointer of the game at the 2:00 mark. Energized by this comeback, Almeida knotted the game at 53-all when she battled on the glass and came away with an offensive rebound and putback 39 seconds later. Neither team scored over the final 1:21 of regulation and the game advanced into overtime.

In the extra period, Navy's comeback story was short-circuited with an 0-7 start from the floor and an 0-2 effort from the foul line over the first four-plus minutes of action. Defensively, the Mids held strong and kept within shouting distance as the Big Green were only able to muster a six-point advantage during this cold streak. A straight-on three-point make by Barnett-Gay with 26 seconds left in overtime cut Navy's deficit to 59-56. A pair of 1-2 showings at the foul line by Dartmouth down the stretch sandwiched a Samson layup at 0:19 to send the game final at 61-58.

For the game, Dartmouth out-shot Navy from the field, 34.8 percent (23-66) to 25.6 (21-82), from the three-point line, 23.8 percent (5-21) to 21.7 (5-23) and from the foul line, 50.0 (10-20) to 45.8 (11-24).

The Mids were strong on the glass with a 63-53 advantage in rebounds over the Big Green. Those 63 boards are the ninth-most in program history and the most since Navy grabbed 65 against Charleston Southern on Dec. 21, 1995. 25 offensive rebounds were a leading factor in the Mids' grand total on Wednesday; 25 o-boards is the seventh-highest total in program history. Individually, Samson led all players with a career-high 16 rebounds. Louridas was second on the team as she tied her career-high with 11 caroms. Off the bench, Morgan Demos (Jr., Downers Grove, Ill.) snatched a career-high eight rebounds with six on the offensive end; all coming over seven minutes of play in the first half.

An overriding factor in the Mids' defeat was only turning those 25 offensive rebounds into 13 second-chance points.

Defensively, Navy forced Dartmouth into 14 turnovers and was credited with seven steals. Holder led the Mids with two steals. Samson was a force close to the basket with four blocks.

"We have got to come ready to play every night; this is college basketball," said Taylor in closing. "I don't know the reason why we didn't play well tonight. Maybe it was because our offense wasn't clicking so it was carrying over into our defense. We've just got to be better in every facet, preparing, playing, coaching, everything."

Navy's busy homestand will continue on Saturday with a 12 noon tip-off versus Stetson at Alumni Hall.