WEST POINT, N.Y. – Facing off with its service academy rival, Army, with the 2024 Star on the line, the Navy women's basketball was unable to overcome an early double-digit deficit on Saturday and fell by a final score of 70-58. Coming in with wins in three of their last four games, the Mids (8-14, 4-7 PL) couldn't quell a sharpshooting Black Knight (10-11, 7-4 PL) team that sank multiple three-pointers in the first, third and fourth quarters, while forcing the visitors into 20 turnovers before a loud and boisterous crowd at Christl Arena on the campus of the United States Military Academy. The contest was part of the 2023-24 Army-Navy Star Series presented by USAA.

Individually, Kate Samson (So., Richmond, Va.) dominated the action on both ends of the court as she tied a career-high with 16 points to go along with nine rebounds, while blocking a career-high six shots. The freshmen backcourt of Zanai Barnett-Gay (Glenn Dale, Md.) and Kyah Smith (Richmond, Va.) combined for 33 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in their first career Star Game. Barnett-Gay led the Mids with 20 points with six rebounds, three assists and a steal. Her fellow plebe Smith finished with 13 points, five rebounds and a career-high seven assists.

"Army's ability to hit the three-ball was a difference-maker today," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "We made too many poor decisions in transitions today.
I also thought they got a lot of 50-50 balls, that we had the opportunity to get, but we didn't. Hats off to them on that one.

"We cut it to eight points three separate times in the second half, but we made bad decisions and couldn't cut it to six. They made us pay and came down with three-pointers. We're a young team, but we needed to understand when we had to have a good, quality possession; we rushed too many things. I liked our aggressiveness, but we needed to play under better control and make better decisions."

Army started out fast with a 7-0 run over the opening 2:01 of play and extended its lead to eight, 10-2 a little over 90 seconds later. From that juncture at 6:22, a 6-0 run, including four points by Maren Louridas (So., Delmar, N.Y.) shaved Navy's deficit to just two, 10-8 by 5:22. The game of runs continued as the Black Knights responded with eight unanswered over the next 2:33. With the score 18-8 at 2:49, Army scored six of the next seven points to extend its lead out to 15 before consecutive baskets by Toni Papahronis (So., Edmond, Okla.) and Barnett-Gay pulled Navy within 11 by the end of the quarter. Five turnovers and three made three-pointers by the Black Knights held the Mids back in the initial period of play.

Trailing 24-13 after one, the teams opened the second quarter evenly with six points each over the first 5:13 of action. Similar to the first quarter, large swings of momentum ruled the final four-plus minutes as Army tallied eight straight points to break open a game-high 19-point lead, 38-19 before Navy countered with six consecutive points of its own to conclude the half down, 38-25. Samson bolstered the Mids' late run with a pair of deft shots to give her six points in the period and nine for the half. Seven more turnovers suppressed Navy's effectiveness in the quarter as it shot 46.2 percent (6-13) from the field.

In a near-mirror image of the second quarter, the first five minutes of the third quarter played out almost evenly as short runs by both sides advanced the score to 44-32 by the under-five media timeout at 4:58. Down by 12, Navy twice tightened its deficit to eight points in the ensuing two minutes, first at 44-36 following a Samson layup and again at 46-38 on a pull-up jumper by Smith. In a two-plus minute run of play that changed the game, Army had a loud response to this challenge with three straight three-pointers by Reese Ericson to burst out to a 17-point lead. A late layup by Samson made it 55-40 through three quarters.

Down, but not out, the Mids rallied to start off the fourth quarter as they scored on three of their first four possessions, while shutting out the Black Knights. With the score 55-47, the three-ball once again spelled doom for the visiting Navy team as a 6-0 run on the back of Trinity Hardy and Reese Ericson treys gave Army a double-digit lead that they wouldn't relinquish for the remainder of the contest. Twice the Mids came within 10 points at 61-51 and 62-52 and eventually finished down 12 when Smith sank her first three-pointer of the game with 22 seconds left.

"The last two games we had 14 combined turnovers and today we had 20," said Taylor in closing. "I felt that our freshmen played like freshmen at times in this environment and they turned it over; even Toni this was her first time playing in an Army-Navy game here. Overall, we didn't make the best decisions. They will learn and grow from this experience."

For the game, Navy outshot Army from the field, 44.2 percent (23-52) to 41.9 (26-62) and from the foul line, 61.5 percent (8-13) to 56.3 (9-16). The Black Knights held a significant edge in three-point shooting, 42.9 percent (9-21) to 33.3 (4-12).

In the rebounding battle, the Mids grabbed two more caroms on Saturday, 31-29. Samson led all players with nine rebounds, including four on the offensive glass.

Defensively, Navy forced 11 turnovers and was credited with five steals. Louridas led the Mids with two thefts to go along with two blocks. Samson was dominant in her low-post defense with a career-high six blocks.

Navy will be back in action on Wednesday with a road matchup at American. Tip-off between the Mids and Eagles is set for 7 p.m. at Bender Arena.

Saturday saw both the men's and women's basketball Stars up for grab at West Point. Army won both contests to tighten the 2023-24 Star Series presented by USAA to 9-8-1 through 18 contests.