BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The standout freshman campaign for Navy's
Zanai Barnett-Gay has continued to prosper with Monday's award announcements for the Patriot League and the Naval Academy Athletic Association. After leading the Mids to a 2-0 week and averaging 23.0 points per game, Barnett-Gay was honored as the Patriot League Rookie of the Week, as well as the NAAA Athlete of the Week presented by Northrop Grumman. Her accolade from the conference set a new Navy women's basketball program record as its her seventh weekly award of 2023-24, breaking the previous mark of six Rookie of the Week selections by Becky Dowling in 1994-95.
This past week, Barnett-Gay went back-to-back with 23-point games after shooting 8-18 with three three-pointers and 4-4 at the foul line at Lafayette on Wednesday before coming back and going 9-15 from the field with three three-pointers and a 2-2 effort from the charity stripe versus American on Saturday. She augmented her team-leading scoring efforts with 12 total rebounds, nine assists and six steals over those contests. For the week, she averaged 23.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 3.0 steals, while shooting 51.5 percent (17-33) from the field, 60.0 percent (6-10) from three and 100 percent (6-6) from the free throw line.
Averaging 18.1 points per game this season with 489 over 27 appearances, Barnett-Gay currently rank seventh all-time in Navy's single-season record book and is four points out of the top-five. Nationally, her scoring average is 56th-best in NCAA DI and fifth amongst all DI freshmen. A threat on defense, as well, she has registered 80 steals for a 2.96 per game average. All-time at Navy she ranks fourth in the single-season record book, while she stands 15th currently in NCAA DI.
Barnett-Gay is one of four players in Navy women's basketball program history to earn five or more Patriot League Rookie of the Week awards in a single-season ...
Zanai Barnett-Gay (Pres.) -- 7 awards
Becky Dowling (1994-95) -- 6 awards
Cassie Consedine (2007-08) -- 5 awards
Maren Louridas (2022-23) -- 5 awards
Additionally, her seven honors tie for third-most in Patriot League history trailing just Bucknell's Claire DeBoer (2013-14) and Army's Kelsey Minato (2012-13), who captured eight Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors in a single-season.
Winners of three of its last four games and six of its last nine, Navy will conclude its 2023-24 regular season on Wednesday night at Bucknell. The Mids will try and continue building on one of the best turnarounds in women's collegiate basketball this season as they currently rank second in NCAA DI with an 11-win improvement from 2022-23. They're one of seven programs: Central Arkansas, Detroit, Fairfield, North Texas, TCU and Louisiana Monroe that have improved by 11 games so far this year; all seven teams are chasing VCU, who has improved from 7-22 to 26-4. Tip-off between Navy and Bucknell in Lewisburg is set for 6 p.m.
