EASTON, Pa. – The Navy women's basketball team led wire-to-wire over Lafayette on Wednesday night as the visiting Mids (11-16, 7-9 PL) broke out to a 20-4 lead in the first quarter and withstood all comeback attempts by the Leopards (10-17, 5-11 PL) to grab a 58-49 victory at the Kirby Sports Center. Navy's sharp three-point shooting kick-started its initial success, while its defense helped the Mids hang on down the stretch as the Leopards scored just 11 points in the fourth quarter.

Zanai Barnett-Gay (Glenn Dale, Md.) was everywhere for Navy on Wednesday night as the freshman led all players in points with 23, assists with four and steals with four, as well. Additionally, the standout rookie tied for the team lead with seven rebounds. Her freshman backcourt mate Kyah Smith (Richmond, Va.) provided strong support with 15 points, including three first quarter three-pointers. Toni Papahronis (So., Edmond, Okla.) did a little bit of everything for the Mids with six points, three rebounds, two steals and a block, while also providing over 37 minutes of lock-down defense on the Leopards' high-scoring guard Abby Antognoli, who finished with just eight points, three of which came on a desperation half-court heave at the end of the third quarter.

"We've been talking to the team a lot about the opportunities that we've had this year; we felt like our game at Holy Cross was our most recent opportunity to get a win, but sometimes you have just got to take what you want, that was our message tonight," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "If you want to win a game sometimes you just have to take it; what are you willing to sacrifice. I thought that we came out tonight with a really good mind set.

"It helped that we were hot from three in the beginning with five threes in the first quarter. I felt like we had opportunities to extend the lead in the second quarter when we were up 18, but we forced some things and took too many quick shots, that allowed them to get back into the game. A 16-point lead at the half is a lot different than an 11-point lead, but we allowed them to stay around. I thought our offensive execution was really good early. In the third quarter we looked a little frazzled and missed a bunch of chippies and we gave up some open shots on the other end. We're a young team and you can see that in the roller coaster of the season, as well as in the roller coaster of the game. They cut it to two points twice in the third quarter, but we pushed it back out to eight, but then Abby [Antognoli] hits that crazy shot and you go 'ooh, what happened' as we're only up five.

"I thought that we executed really well down the stretch and made plays. A lot of people made a lot of big plays. Sydne Watts made a big steal late and came down with six rebounds tonight. I thought Toni and Maren [Louridas] were really, really good on defense for us in the fourth quarter. Kyah was really hot early, struggled in the middle two quarters, but came through with two huge buckets in the fourth. Kate's [Samson] offensive rebound and putback may have been the play of the game because it helped us stretch it back out to six. Z was everywhere the entire game on both ends of the court for us. At the end of the day, we did enough to win. Our fourth quarter defense was gritty and tough; I think that's what ultimately won the game for us."

Navy started out on fire from distance as the visitors opened up the contest 3-4 from three-point range over the first 3:51 of action to bolt out to a 9-2 lead. Barnett-Gay was the early spark plug for the Mids with two of the treys, while Smith added the third. Navy's success continued as it scored eight more unanswered points to break out to a 17-2 advantage by 3:35 when Smith capped the run with her third three-pointer of the quarter. The Mids' defense also continued humming as Barnett-Gay poked away a Leopard dribble and was found for the breakaway layup by Sydne Watts (Sr., Canton, Ga.) to make it 20-4 at 1:49. A three-pointer by Lafayette's Halee Smith with 39 seconds remaining closed the quarter at 20-7 in favor of Navy. The Mids knocked down 62.5 percent (5-8) of their three-pointers in the period, while the Leopards shot just 11.8 percent (2-17) from the floor. Navy forced five turnovers and was rewarded with seven points off those errors.

The Mids' offense kept clicking to start the second quarter as they scored six of the first seven points. Barnett-Gay netted four of those points in a 20-second span as she initially nailed a jumper at 8:25 before turning around and converting a fast break layup off a Gia Pissott (So., Toms River, N.J.) steal. Following Watts' jumper at 7:04 that made it 26-8, Lafayette fired back with a 13-6 run to close the quarter as it used a pair of three-pointers by Kylie Favours to bolster their effort during this stretch.

Coming out of the locker room up 32-21, Navy extended its lead back into double-digits in short order as Maren Louridas (So., Delmar, N.Y.) answered a Mikayla Andrews jumper with a three-pointer from the wing at 8:39 to make it 35-23. With their backs against the wall, the Leopards fought back and held the Mids without a basket for over four-plus minutes and tightened the game to two, 35-33 at 3:56. The teams traded a pair of free throws over the next two possessions and the margin stayed at two. With the score 37-35, Navy re-engaged its offense with six unanswered points the next three times down the court. Trailing by eight in the waning seconds of the period, Abby Antognoli grabbed a loose ball beyond mid-court and heaved a desperation three-pointer that swished in with all zeroes showing. That was Antognoli's first basket of the contest; she came into Wednesday averaging 12.2 points per game.

The fourth quarter opened with Navy holding onto a 43-38 lead. Barnett-Gay helped the Mids extend their advantage out to seven with a driving layup 47 seconds into the stanza. A 7-2 response by Lafayette over the next 3:42 drew the hosts back to within two, 47-45. That was as close as the Leopards got to overtaking the Mids as their offense was stunted and scored just four points over the final 5:31 of play. Ahead by six, 51-45, after an offensive rebound and putback by Kate Samson (So., Richmond, Va.) at 3:58, Navy closed out the wire-to-wire win with seven of the final 11 points as Barnett-Gay provided the dagger with a three-pointer at 1:19.

In its 58-49 victory, Navy out-shot Lafayette, 35.6 percent (21-59) to 32.0 (16-50) from the floor and 35.0 percent (7-20) to 27.8 (5-18) from three-point range. The Leopards held a slight 70.6 percent (12-17) to 64.3 (9-14) edge in foul shooting.

The rebounding battle was tied at 37-all, though the Mids won the offensive boards, 9-7. Barnett-Gay and Samson tied for the team lead with seven caroms each.

Navy handled the ball effectively with 12 assists versus 13 turnovers. Barnett-Gay also paced the Mids in that category with a game-high four helpers.
Defensively, Navy forced Lafayette into 20 turnovers and were credited with 13 steals. Barnett-Gay led all defenders with four thefts.

"Abby Antognoli really makes Lafayette go. She's one of my favorite players in this league," said Taylor. "I thought Toni did an outstanding job on her all game. Z and Kyah picked her up at times and they too did a great job on her defensively. That was a key to the game, she makes their engine go. Overall, whenever you can hold a team to 48 points that's pretty big."
 
The Mids will be back in action on Saturday with their final home regular season contest. Following a Senior Day ceremony to celebrate Morganne Andrews, Sam Schofield and Sydne Watts at 11:35 a.m., Navy will go head-to-head with American with the opening tip scheduled for 12-noon.