ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team continued its run of strong recent play on Saturday as it came from behind to knock off Colgate, 59-58. Trailing for over 34 minutes of action at Alumni Hall, the Mids (8-13, 4-6 PL) finally overtook the Raiders (11-10, 4-6 PL) with 2:44 left in the fourth quarter and held on for the one-point victory.

Navy had a historic day with its ball-handling as the Mids finished with just five turnovers, while forcing the Raiders into 19 errors. That differential resulted in a 16-to-1 advantage for Navy in points off of turnovers. Additionally, the Mids roamed freely into the paint with a 40-to-20 advantage in points in the paint over the Raiders.

Individually, Navy had three players reach double-figures on Saturday led by Zanai Barnett-Gay (Fr., Glenn Dale, Md.), who tallied a game-high 17 points, to go along with seven rebounds and five steals. Toni Papahronis (So., Edmond, Okla.) backed her up with a career-best 15 points on 6-10 shooting in 39 minutes. The third Mid in double figures was Kyah Smith (Fr., Richmond, Va.), who battled through foul trouble to finish with 13 points and a team-high five assists.

"I feel like we're starting to find a combination that's beginning to work," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "Toni was unbelievable today; she's still not quite there, but wow. You've got to tip your cap to Maren, what great effort on the offensive boards late. She willed herself to those loose balls. Sydne Watts might've had the best defensive stand of her career right there at the end; she locked Tiasia McMillan up and stood her ground.

"Where I think we won the game was when we went down 12 mid-way through the second quarter. I told the team that we're not playing well, but we have to stay calm, if we can get this to six by half, we'll be okay. People can talk about the comeback in the fourth quarter and the plays that we made, but the way we shut them down the final four minutes of the first half was where the tide changed. We won today because of defense."

The game opened evenly as both teams registered eight points over the first five minutes of action. Smith was an early spark plug for Navy with six of the host team's points. Following a fastbreak connection between Smith and Barnett-Gay gave the Mids a 10-8 lead at 4:45, the Raiders responded with 14 of the next 19 points to break out to a 22-15 edge by the first quarter intermission. Colgate did the majority of its offensive damage in the first quarter at the foul line going 11-for-11 in free throws.

The Raiders' strong conclusion to the previous period carried over into the second quarter as they slowly increased their lead out to 12 points, 31-19, by the 3:40 mark. In a run of play, that Taylor noted in his postgame comments, Navy fought out of this deficit and shut out Colgate over the final three-plus minutes of the half. In a 41-second span, the Mids drew within six points as Papahronis, Barnett-Gay and Lizzie Holder (Fr., Stillwater, Minn.) all recorded points. Barnett-Gay's scoring play was especially note-worthy as Papahronis stripped the ball from Morgan McMahon and hit Barnett-Gay with an outlet pass for a fastbreak layup and 'and-one' conversion.

Down 31-25 coming out of the locker room after halftime, Navy's comeback effort continued as within the first four-plus minutes of play in the third quarter the Mids cut their deficit to three points when Smith deposited her team's first and only three-pointer of the game at 5:49 to make it 36-33. Navy's defensive pressure stayed high as Barnett-Gay grabbed her fifth steal of the game and went coast-to-coast as the Mids drew within two points of the Raiders, 37-35 at 4:02. A pair of 4-0 runs, first by Colgate and later by Navy advanced the score to 41-39 before the Raiders sank baskets on each of their final two possessions of the quarter.

With the score 45-41 through 30 minutes of action, Colgate immediately re-engaged its offense and put Navy's hopes of victory on the ropes as the visitors scored six of the first seven points in the fourth quarter to go up 51-42 by the 6:42 mark. Down, but not out, the Mids fired back with eight unanswered points over the next 2:39 as Papahronis, Barnett-Gay, Sydne Watts (Sr., Canton, Ga.) and Maren Louridas (So., Delmar, N.Y.) registered consecutive field goals. Trailing 51-50, Navy made its fifth shot in six trips down the court as Smith netted her 10th and 11th points of the game as a response to two points by Colgate. After the Mids' defense forced the Raiders into a shot clock violation, the comeback was completed with Smith's second field goal in as many attempts to go up 54-53. A 1-of-2 showing at the free throw line by Colgate tied the game temporarily before Papahronis darted through the lane and gave Navy a two-point lead with less than two minutes to play. The Mids held onto that lead down the stretch on the strength of passionate play on the offensive boards by Louridas as she extended a Navy possession that led to free throws for Barnett-Gay with 16 seconds to go and again with one second to go that resulted in two of her own free throws to clinch the win.

"You can look back on two or three games earlier this season, that we lost due to inexperience, but now you're starting to see that growth," said Taylor in his closing. "Our shot selection is getting better late and our attention to detail is getting so much better. We also got to those 50-50 balls late. The hustle and heart was there to the end."

For the game, Navy out-shot Colgate from the field, 37.9 percent (22-58) to 34.7 (17-49), though the Raiders held advantages in three-point shooting, 44.4 percent (4-9) to 9.1 (1-11) as well as from the foul line, 87.0 percent (20-23) to 58.3 (14-24).

In the rebounding battle, Colgate had a significant edge on Saturday grabbing 16 more caroms than Navy, 46-30. Barnett-Gay led the Mids with seven rebounds. Papahronis backed up her teammate with five boards of her own.

Navy's ball-handling was some of the best in program history as it was charged with just five turnovers for the 40-minute contest. All-time, five turnovers ranks fourth in the Navy record books. The three games with fewer turnovers all occurred during the Mids' competitive days in the 1980s as part of Division II. Paced by Smith's five helpers, Navy finished the game with 10 assists.

Defensively, the Mids forced the Raiders into 19 turnovers and were credited with 12 steals. Coming into the contest ranked eighth nationally with 3.26 steals per game, Barnett-Gay surpassed her season average with five steals versus Colgate. Additionally, Smith and Louridas tallied two steals each. Morganne Andrews (Sr., Martinsburg, W.Va.) was strong in the post with two of Navy's five total blocks.

The Mids will be away from action for a week as the Patriot League has its annual mid-week bye. The next contest for Navy will be at Army on Saturday, Feb. 10 with the 2024 Women's Basketball Star on the line at West Point. The nationally televised game on CBS Sports Network is scheduled for an 11 a.m. tip-off.