ANNAPOLIS, Md. – With playoff seeding on the line, the Navy women's basketball team took care of business on Wednesday night with a gritty 55-49 victory over Bucknell. Hoping to claw its way into a bye into the quarterfinals of the upcoming Patriot League Tournament, the Mids (13-16, 9-9 PL) held up their end of the bargain and contained the Bison (12-17, 9-9 PL) to the tune of 26.2 percent shooting and just six points in the third quarter on the road at Sojka Pavilion. The victory moved Navy into a four-way tie for fifth place, but unfortunately, the tie-breakers didn't go the Mids' way and they will head into the Patriot League Tournament as the seventh seed.

Zanai Barnett-Gay (Fr., Glenn Dale, Md.) led all players on Wednesday with 23 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter. The 23-point outing was her third straight game with that exact total. Additionally, she grabbed eight rebounds to go along with four steals. Kyah Smith (Fr., Richmond, Va.) joined her in double-figures with 15 points, five rebounds and three three-pointers. Kate Samson (So., Richmond, Va.) nearly went for a double-double with eight points and 10 rebounds, with an additional four blocked shots.

"That was a tough, hard-fought game," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "I thought Bucknell played really well defensively and we countered them with a really good defensive effort as well. That was one of the most physical games I've been a part of since I've been in the Patriot League. I think their length bothered us and at the same time our length bothered them. It was a slugfest for the first three quarters. Kyah was struggling for the first three quarters and I told her before the break 'big-time players, make big-time plays late in the game, you've got to put the first three quarters behind you.' On cue, she hit that pull-up jumper and then started rattling off three-pointers. She also set up Kate. I felt that little seven-point stretch gave us some separation before Zanai took over. She also was struggling a bit early on, but she stuck with it, kept believing and powered us to the end.

"I felt the lineup with Gia [Pissott], Toni [Papahronis], Sydne [Watts], Kyah and Z played really great defense in the fourth quarter and overall in the second half; they [Bucknell] only made five baskets in the second half and a few of those were late in the fourth quarter. I thought that everyone that came in today really contributed to this win. Kate, Gia and Morganne [Andrews] really battled in the post and controlled the paint; blocking shots and tipping balls."

Navy started out the game extremely fast with baskets on three of its first four possessions to break out to a 7-0 lead by 7:52. Maren Louridas (So., Delmar, N.Y.) kick-started the run with a corner three-pointer before Samson went back-to-back with baskets in the paint. A 6-2 response by Bucknell over the next 1:42 tightened it to a 9-6 margin. The Bison kept chipping away at their deficit and drew within one, 10-9 at 4:43. The momentum swung back in the Mids' favor over the next 3:17 as they scored all five of the game's points with Barnett-Gay capping the run with a steal and fast break layup. The final four points of the quarter were scored by Bucknell and the teams retired to their bench with the score 15-13 Navy.

A three-point basket by Smith the first time down the court for the Mids built out their lead temporarily to five points before the Bison answered back with seven of the next nine points to tie the game at 20-20 by the 5:30 mark. Another field goal by Bucknell's Emma Theodorsson gave Bucknell its first lead, 22-20 at 4:45. Barnett-Gay scored three consecutive points to swing the advantage back to Navy with just over three minutes remaining in the half. A trading of baskets down the stretch left the Bison going into the locker room ahead 26-25. Seven Midshipmen turnovers held the visitors back in the period as they shot 44.4 percent (4-9), while the Bison struggled at 28.6 percent (6-21) from the field.

The first half slugfest turned even grittier in the third quarter as field goals were extremely hard to come by as illustrated by Barnett-Gay registering the only basket of the first four minutes. With the score 27-26, the teams quickly exchanged two-point baskets at 5:22 and 4:41 before a four-plus minute drought of field goals. While Bucknell was able to re-take the lead with four free throws, 32-29, three unanswered points by Navy in the final 54 seconds left the teams deadlocked at 32-32 through 30 minutes of action. Overall, the Mids were 3-15 from the field in the period, while Bucknell only mustered one field goal on 13 attempts for a 7.7 percent mark.

Looking to capture its third straight win heading into the Patriot League Tournament, Navy sprinted out to a six-point lead of 39-33 in a matter of 2:18 to start the fourth quarter. A three-pointer by Smith and a coast-to-coast rebound and driving layup by Barnett-Gay added the exclamation mark to this short burst. Three consecutive points by Bucknell's Ashley Sofilkanich tightened the game up to a 39-36 margin at 5:29 before Navy blew open the competitive contest with a 9-0 run over the next 3:15. With their defense holding the Bison to 0-3 shooting with a pair of turnovers, the Mids rode its talented freshmen backcourt for all nine points, the first three coming off a Smith trey and the ensuing six by Barnett-Gay. Ahead 48-36 at 2:14, Navy held on at the foul line with a 7-8 mark as Bucknell shaved six points off its deficit to send the game final at 55-49.

For the game, Navy out-shot Bucknell, 35.2 percent (19-54) to 26.2 (17-65) from the field, 30.8 percent (4-13) to 13.3 (2-15) from three-point range and 72.2 percent (13-18) to 68.4 (13-19) from the foul line. In the second half, the Bison were held to just 18.5 percent (5-27) from the field by the Mids.

The physical battle on the boards went the way of the Mids, 46-40, though the Bison grabbed 13 offensive rebounds versus eight for the Mids. Samson tied for the game-high with 10 caroms. Barnett-Gay was second on Navy with eight rebounds.

Defensively, the Mids forced the Bison into 15 turnovers and was credited with 11 steals. Barnett-Gay led all players with four steals. With Bucknell running the majority of its offense in the paint, Navy was active with a season-high nine blocks. Samson rejected four shots to pace the Mids.

"Last year built up a lot of character and taught us resiliency," said Taylor in closing. "The biggest thing that our returning seniors and sophomores have been able to do since late January with that Lehigh game was starting to believe that they could win. That's a huge testament to these kids. We started out 1-5 in the league and they never stopped believing. My hat's off to our coaching staff, we continued to believe in them and continued to work with them and they kept getting better. Watching them go through Bucknell's scout this week, I felt 'wow, we're starting to figure some things out.' We're moving better offensively and defensively. I feel that we've bought into that defensive mindset. We're getting so many contributions. It's somebody different every night. The scary thing is we can keep getting better. We still have the opportunity to get even better. We're going to have to have a lot of contributions from up-and-down our roster to make a run in the tournament. Hopefully our depth will be able to help us."

In a season of upsets and closely-decided contests, the Patriot League regular season wrapped up with three more upsets as American knocked off Loyola, who started the day tied for first, Colgate throttled Boston and Lehigh went up to West Point and defeated Army. After the conclusion of Wednesday's action and numerous tie-breakers, Navy ended the regular season tied for fifth in the conference at 9-9 with Lehigh, Army and Bucknell and will be seeded seventh in the upcoming Patriot League Tournament. The Mids will begin their postseason journey at home on Saturday with a #7-#10 matchup versus the Lafayette Leopards. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Alumni Hall.