ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy women's basketball team will continue its quest to climb up the Patriot League leaderboard as it welcomes Boston University to Alumni Hall on Saturday afternoon. Sitting just one game out of fifth place and two out of second place, the Mids (9-14, 5-7 PL) know that they must take advantage of the slate ahead of them with matchups versus the fifth-place Terriers (14-9, 6-6 PL) and second-place Loyola Greyhounds coming back-to-back over the next week. Fresh off its first road win of the season at American on Wednesday night, Navy will be back in the friendly confines of Alumni Hall that has been witness to eight home victories this year. Tip-off between the Mids and Terriers is set for 3:30 p.m. in Annapolis.

The Navy-Boston University game will have live stats provided online, as well as be broadcast on the ESPN+ platform. ESPN+ is a subscription-based streaming service that requires patrons to sign-up for monthly or yearly plans prior to tuning into the contest. An audio-only portion of the contests will also be available via WNAV: over the radio waves on 99.9 FM or 1430 AM, online at WNAV.com or through the iHeart and Audacy platforms. 

Navy versus Boston University
The Mids and Terriers have met 20 times in a series that began on December 30, 2011 at the Fordham Holiday Classic in the Bronx, N.Y.  ... All-time, the series is tied 10-10, though Navy has a 6-3 edge in games played at Alumni Hall in Annapolis ... After getting swept in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 series, the Mids will be looking to pick up their first win since Jan. 22, 2020 when they knocked off the Terriers, 46-40 in Annapolis ... The two teams started meeting annually once Boston joined the Patriot League for the 2013-14 season ... Over the last ten matchups, BU has an 8-2 advantage, including a current six-game win streak
    Last Five Games
    Jan. 3, 2024 (A): Boston 62 - Navy 51
    Jan. 18, 2023 (A): Boston 84 - Navy 41
    Dec. 30, 2022 (H): Boston 62 - Navy 39
    Jan. 15, 2022 (H): Boston 74 - Navy 63
    Jan. 2, 2022 (A): Boston 82 - Navy 52

Most Recent Navy-Boston Matchup ... January 3, 2024 in Boston
Navy 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 squad found itself in an early hole against a Terrier 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 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 and Maren Louridas 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.
  
The Mids darted out to an early 9-6 lead on the strength of a pair of Kate Samson 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 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 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.

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.

Comparing the Teams

(2023-24 Stats)	Navy	Boston U.
Record / League-Only	9-14, 5-7 PL	14-9 / 6-6 PL
Home / Away / Neut. Record	8-5 / 1-9	11-2 / 3-7
Points Per Game	61.6 PPG	62.9 PPG
Points Allowed Per Game	65.9 PPG	61.0 PPG
Field Goal Percentage	38.3 %	44.0 %
3-Point Percentage	26.6 %	36.8 %
Free Throw Percentage	66.7 %	69.8 %
Rebounds Per Game	36.5 RPG	33.1 RPG
Assists/Turnovers Per Game	12.2 / 15.0	14.6 / 16.2

Individual Leaders

(2023-24 Stats)	Navy	Boston Univ.
Points Per Game	Zanai Barnett-Gay, 17.7 ppg	Caitlin Weimar, 18.5 ppg
Rebounds Per Game	Z. Barnett-Gay, 6.4 rpg	C. Weimar, 10.9 rpg
Assists Per Game	Kyah Smith, 3.4 apg	Alex Giannaros, 3.1 apg
Field Goal Percentage	Kate Samson, 47.7 %	C. Weimar, 53.7 %
3-Point Percentage	Sydne Watts, 33.9 %	Kelsi Mingo, 45.5 %
Free Throw Percentage	Z. Barnett-Gay, 73.3 %	Anastasiia Semenova, 77.1 %

Last Time Out -- Wednesday at American 
After struggling the last time out at Army on Saturday, the Navy had an emphatic response on Wednesday night as they led for over 37 minutes and cruised to a 69-55 win on the road at second-place American University. Playing at the unfriendly confines of Bender Arena that has seen the program drop 14 straight meetings since 2013, the Mids (9-14, 5-7 PL) started out fast with back-to-back 19-point quarters and never looked back as their defensive prowess forced the Eagles (9-14, 7-5 PL) into 18 turnovers that subsequently were converted into 23 points by Navy.

Individually, Maren Louridas came within one point of matching her career-high with 23 points on Wednesday night. She was lights out from the field as she shot 9-11, including 4-6 from three-point range. Kyah Smith and Zanai Barnett-Gay tied for second on the team with 12 points each. The duo augmented their statlines as Smith assisted on six baskets and grabbed five rebounds, while Barnett-Gay collected six caroms. Kate Samson filled up the box score with eight points, 11 rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots.

After American broke out to an early 4-2 lead over the opening 73 seconds, a Smith three-pointer at 7:15 pushed Navy into the lead and the Mids were off and running as they scored on three of their next four possessions to pull ahead by seven, 13-6 by the 4:46 mark. Back-to-back baskets from Louridas at 5:06 and 4:46 highlighted this run. The visitors extended their run to 15-2 with a Barnett-Gay jumper at 3:42. With the score 17-6, American won the final three-plus minutes to tighten the contest to 19-12 through one quarter of play. Of Navy's 19 points, 11 came off of turnovers as American gave up the ball eight times in the period.

The second quarter opened with the team's exchanging three-pointers over the first three minutes of play, one for Louridas and one for the Eagles' Anna LeMaster. A 9-2 run over a 92-second span between 6:29 and 4:57 saw the Mids tally points four straight times down the court, including three-pointers by Sydne Watts and Louridas. Up 31-17 the teams slowly advanced the score to 33-20 before Navy raced to the finish line and concluded the first half with five straight points, two from Toni Papahronis and a three-pointer by Louridas in the waning seconds of the quarter. Louridas' trey was her third of the quarter and fourth of the period for the Mids as they once again took advantage of seven turnovers and turned them into nine points.

Up 38-20 coming out of the locker room, Navy immediately went up 20 as Papahronis put back an offensive rebound at 8:25. American fought back over the next four minutes with a 12-4 run to pull within 12, 44-32. The Mids' advantage stayed between 12 and 14 points, until the final 39 seconds of the quarter when Lizzie Holder and Smith combined for three free throws to close the period up 16, 51-35. Six different Mids tallied points in the third quarter.

The final stanza opened up evenly with both teams notching six points over the first three-and-a-half minutes. With the score 57-41, American rattled off four straight points to pull within 12 before Louridas took over with back-to-back driving layups up the baseline to make it 61-48 at 4:08. She continued spearheading Navy's attack down the stretch with four more points, including a banked in three-pointer as the shot clock was expiring with 22 seconds left in the contest.

In Navy's 69-55, the Mids outshot the Eagles, 38.5 percent (25-65) to 33.9 (20-59) from the field, 31.6 percent (6-19) to 21.1 (4-19) from three-point range and 81.3 percent (13-16) to 68.8 (11-16) from the foul line.

Parking / Shuttle
Fans are reminded that the general public does not have access to drive their vehicles on to the U.S. Naval Academy. Fans may park at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium for a fee and take a shuttle that will run every 10 minutes starting one hour before the game and will continue running until one hour after the game is completed. Fans 18 and over need a government-issued photo ID. Enter Gate 5 off Taylor Ave. to park at the stadium.