ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Faced with the opportunity to exorcise the bad spirits of a dramatic 70-67 loss on the road at Loyola on Jan. 27, the Navy women's basketball returned the favor on Wednesday night with a thrilling come-from-behind victory of its own in front of its home crowd. Down 51-48 with 2:17 left in regulation, the Mids (10-15, 6-8 PL) ended the game on a 5-0 run and held the Greyhounds (13-12, 8-6 PL) to 0-3 shooting with one turnover in the visitors' final four possessions. Kate Samson (So., Richmond, Va.) was clutch on both ends of the court in the final three seconds as she laid in the go-ahead basket at 2.6 and then blocked Lex Therien's potential game-tying jumper at the buzzer to seal the 53-51 victory at Alumni Hall.

Samson filled up the box score on Wednesday night with her first double-double of the 2023-24 campaign with 12 points and 10 rebounds to go along with a pair of steals and blocks on defense. Kyah Smith (Fr., Richmond, Va.) was equally as critical to the Mids' success as she led all scorers with 17 points and facilitated with a game-high six assists, including Samson's go-ahead layup. Quiet through the first three quarters with just two points, Zanai Barnett-Gay (Fr., Glenn Dale, Md.) led Navy's comeback quest in the fourth with eight points on 3-4 shooting with a straight-away three-pointer from beyond the arc early and an old-fashioned three-point conversion with an 'and-one' later in the final period. Her 10 points extended her streak of double-digit scoring efforts to all 24 games of her collegiate career.

"We won the game on the defensive end tonight," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "It was a tough game; it was a heavyweight fight between two teams that didn't want to lose. They [Loyola] came in on a four-game winning streak and had been playing extremely well. Statistically, everything was even tonight; it ended up a two-point game. We made one more play than they did and that's what it came down to. Offensively, the ball just wasn't going in the basket for us; we had so many balls rim in-and-out. We continue to stress that when we defend, we win. We did that tonight.

"Kate was huge for us down the stretch. That was a great find and pass by Kyah for the go-ahead basket and on the other end, Kate did a great job of walling up and extending both hands up on Therien.  Toni Papahronis also made a huge play for us with her offensive rebound and putback with under a minute to go. Our kids will grow from this. Every experience matters and we'll grow. They [Loyola] had a great game plan with a lot of isolating, but we were able to adjust and get the ball into Kate more."

The action on Wednesday night opened extremely even as the score was tied twice and the lead jockeyed between the teams four times in the first quarter. Smith and Samson paced Navy's early offensive work with four points each to spot the Mids a 10-9 lead at 4:22. A 6-0 run by Loyola between 1:50 and 0:29 saw the visitors jump out to 15-10 advantage. In control of the ball with one possession left in the period, Violet McNece (Fr., Chesterfield, Mo.) left her mark on her first shot of the game with a corner three-pointer that swished through the net to close the Mids' deficit to just two, 15-13 through one quarter of play.

That basket kick-started a run by Navy that extended to 7-0 with baskets by Smith and Sydne Watts (Sr., Canton, Ga.) over the opening 85 seconds of the second quarter to give the hosts a 17-15 lead. The back-and-forth action continued as Loyola tied the game for the fourth time at 17-17 on the ensuing possession before briefly taking the lead, 19-17 at 7:29. Another 7-0 rebuttal by the Mids shot the team into the lead by five in a matter of 92 seconds. Smith knocked home a driving layup and three-pointer to start the run before Barnett-Gay jumped into the Greyhound passing lane and took the steal coast-to-coast to make it 24-19 going into the second quarter media timeout. Coming out of that break, the momentum swung back to Loyola with a 6-0 run to go ahead 25-24. The lead swapped two more times over the final two minutes as the Greyhounds went into halftime up 27-26.

Loyola scored its first two times down the court to open up a five-point lead within the first 83 seconds of the second half. The Greyhounds' lead bounced between three and five points for the next three minutes until Samson converted one of her two free throw attempts at 4:33 to pull the Mids back to just a two-point deficit, 35-33. The low-scoring period ended with Loyola netting four of the final six points to make it 39-35 at the close of the quarter. While shooting 5-9 from the field, the Greyhounds were hamstrung by seven turnovers. The Mids benefitted from those errors as all nine of their points in the stanza came as a response to a turnover.

Uncharacteristically quiet through the first three quarters, Navy's leading scorer, Zanai Barnett-Gay sparked the Mids in the fourth with five points in a matter of 55 seconds. Ahead for the first time since 1:52 of the second quarter, 40-39, Smith stretched Navy's lead to three with a pair of free throws at 8:16. A short 4-0 run by Loyola swung the scoreboard back in the visitors' favor before Barnett-Gay recorded her second pick-and-score of the game at 6:51 with an additional free throw coming to complete the 'and-one' and put Navy back in front by two, 45-43. The Greyhounds looked to break the Mids' heart again with a similar late game rally with eight of the next 11 points to go up 51-48 with 2:17 left in regulation. Unfazed by its tenuous position, Navy's defense buckled down and shut out Loyola with four empty possessions down the stretch. Following a 1-2 showing at the foul line by Samson, Toni Papahronis (So., Edmond, Okla.) drew the Mids even with 41 seconds left as she grabbed an offensive rebound and immediately bounced back up for the putback. With the ball and 19 seconds to play, Samson put her squad ahead with 2.6 seconds left after Smith drove the lane and found Samson for the step-through layup between a pair of Loyola defenders. Samson made sure her go-ahead bucket stood up as the game-winner as she cleanly blocked Lex Therien, the reigning Patriot League Player of the Week, at the buzzer.

For the game, Loyola out-shot Navy, 41.2 percent (21-51) to 38.5 (20-52) from the field and 87.5 percent (7-8) to 66.7 (10-15) from the foul line. The three-point shot didn't factor much into Wednesday's outcome as the Mids shot just 23.1 percent (3-13), while the Greyhounds converted 14.3 percent (2-14) of their long-range attempts.

The rebounding battle ended up tied at 32-32. Navy held a one-carom edge on the offensive glass, 9-8. Samson led the Mids with 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the season and third of her career. Maren Louridas (So., Delmar, N.Y.) was also active on the glass with six rebounds.

Defensively, Navy forced Loyola into 21 turnovers, 7.5 over its regular season average. The Mids were credited with eight steals, including a game-high three by Barnett-Gay. Navy used those turnovers effectively with a 23-9 advantage in points off of turnovers. This is the fourth time this month over five games that Navy has forced 18 or more turnovers. Samson was active on the defensive end with two steals and two blocks.

Navy will continue the stretch run of Patriot League play with back-to-back road tilts starting Saturday at Holy Cross. With the Crusaders' overtime win tonight and the Greyhounds' loss, Holy Cross is back atop the conference table. Tip-off between the Mids and Crusaders is set for 12-noon in Worcester, Mass. on Saturday. Following that game, Navy will then venture up to Easton, Pa. for a Wednesday night matchup versus Lafayette at 6 p.m.