ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Coming off its first loss in Patriot League play after falling to Colgate on Wednesday, the Navy women's basketball team will look to keep pace atop the conference standings as it welcomes Bucknell to Alumni Hall on Saturday afternoon. Sweeping the 2024 season series over the Bison (8-8, 3-2 PL), the Mids (12-4, 4-1 PL) will be on the hunt for their first three-game win streak against their long-time rivals since the 2013 and 2014 seasons.Saturday's matinee will also feature two of the Patriot League's most talent sophomores as Zanai Barnett-Gay and Ashley Sofilkanich will be looking to reign supreme after the duo battled for last year's Rookie of the Year award and were both selected to the Preseason All-Patriot League Team in October. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. at Alumni Hall.

Saturday's Navy-Bucknell game will have live stats provided online, as well as be broadcast on the ESPN+ platform. ESPN+ is a subscription-based streaming service that requires patrons to sign-up for monthly or yearly plans prior to tuning into the contest. An audio-only portion of the contests will also be available via WNAV: over the radio waves on 99.9 FM or 1430 AM, online at WNAV.com or through the iHeart and Audacy platforms. 

Navy versus Bucknell
The Mids and Bison have met 77 times in a series that began on December 5, 1981 ... The series is dotted with multiple lengthy streaks of wins and losses; overall Bucknell leads Navy 45-32 ... Over 35 games played in Annapolis, the series leans towards Bucknell, 19-16 as the Bison won eight of the last nine games at Alumni Hall ... During the 42 years of competition between the squads, Navy has run off streaks of nine wins (2009-2013) and five games twice (1981-1992 / 1997-1999), while Bucknell won 13 straight (1999-2004), nine straight (2005-2009) and most recently seven straight (2015-2018)  ... Over the last ten matchups, Bucknell is 7-3 versus Navy.
    Last Five Games
    March 6, 2024 (A): Navy 55 - Bucknell 49
    Jan. 24, 2024 (H): Navy 59 - Bucknell 48
    Feb. 8, 2023 (A): Bucknell 70 - Navy 49
    Jan. 25, 2023 (H): Bucknell 67 - Navy 49
    March 10, 2022 (A): Bucknell 64 - Navy 44 **Patriot League Semifinals

Most Recent Navy-Bucknell Matchup ... March 6, 2024 in Lewisburg, Pa.
With playoff seeding on the line, Navy 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 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 joined her in double-figures with 15 points, five rebounds and three three-pointers. Kate Samson nearly went for a double-double with eight points and 10 rebounds, with an additional four blocked shots.

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 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. 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.

Comparing the Teams

(2024-25 Stats)	Navy	Bucknell
Record / League-Only	12-4 / 4-1 PL	8-8 / 3-2 PL
Home / Away / Neut. Record	6-3 / 5-1 / 1-0	5-2 / 3-6 / 0-0
Points Per Game	68.9 PPG	57.9 PPG
Points Allowed Per Game	58.6 PPG	58.1 PPG
Field Goal Percentage	38.9 %	39.6 %
3-Point Percentage	32.8 %	33.5 %
Free Throw Percentage	66.0 %	71.4 %
Rebounds Per Game	42.3 RPG	32.3 RPG
Assists/Turnovers Per Game	14.1 / 14.8	13.9 / 15.5
Common Non-Conf. Opponents	Dartmouth - L, 61-58	Dartmouth - W, 53-50

Individual Leaders

(2024-25 Stats)	Navy	Bucknell
Points Per Game	Zanai Barnett-Gay, 19.9 ppg	Ashley Sofilkanich, 18.6 ppg
Rebounds Per Game	Z. Barnett-Gay, 7.9 rpg	A. Sofilkanich, 8.4 rpg
Assists Per Game	Z. Barnett-Gay, 3.4 apg	Sophia Sabino, 3.3 apg
Field Goal Percentage	Kate Samson, 49.5 %	A. Sofilkanich, 48.9 %
3-Point Percentage	Mary Gibbons, 41.4 %	Reese Zemitis, 38.2 %
Free Throw Percentage	Z. Barnett-Gay, 78.7 %	A. Sofilkanich, 75.0 %

Last Time Out -- Wednesday at Colgate
In a rematch from last year's Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals, Navy and Colgate gave the loud, boisterous crowd at Cotterell Court 40 minutes of nip-and-tuck hard-fought action on Wednesday. With over 1,600 fans in attendance as part of the Raiders' (13-5, 3-2 PL) annual education day promotion, the Mids (12-4, 4-1 PL) led at the conclusions of the first and third quarters, but ultimately fell late as the host team pulled away with a 20-12 run over the last eight-plus minutes of play and flipped a 42-42 tie into a 62-54 final decision.

Zanai Barnett-Gay continued her standout sophomore campaign as she led all players with 23 points and 16 rebounds. Her rebounding total was a new career-best and all 16 boards were gathered on the defensive end, a number that ranks second all-time in program history for most defensive rebounds in a game. Off the bench, Kyah Smith added 10 points and three assists over 32 minutes.

Coming out in the second quarter with the score 19-14 in favor of Navy, Colgate immediately fought back to draw even with five points over the opening 1:33 of play. Navy re-engaged its offense with strong results soon after with nine of the next 12 points to pull ahead 28-22 following a Maren Louridas three-pointer at 4:20. Unfortunately for the Mids that was their final field goal of the half as the Raiders had a 7-0 rebuttal to close out the period with the lead 29-28.

Colgate carried that late momentum over into the second half as the hosts netted four more unanswered points to take a then game-high lead of five, 33-28 by the 8:18 juncture. The roller coaster action continued as Navy's defense shut down Colgate for over six minutes. During that scoreless period of time, the Mids rattled off nine straight points, six from Barnett-Gay and three more from Papahronis. With the score 37-33 at 2:59, the Raiders shaved a point off of its deficit before the quarter break as they trailed by three, 40-37 through 30 minutes of action.

Navy and Colgate kept up their back-and-forth battle going into the fourth as an early Taylor Golembiewski layup was quickly countered by a precise Holder post-up move. Trailing 42-39, an 'and-one' conversion by Golembiewski at 8:20 evened the score at 42-42. The Mids went nearly four scoreless minutes from that Holder field goal until Barnett-Gay added to the team's scoring total with a layup and successful 'and-one' of her own at 4:45 to end the Raiders 9-0 run and make it 48-45. Barnett-Gay kept powering Navy's late push with four of her team's next six points as the Mids crept closer by the 2:19 juncture with a score of 54-51. A free throw by Smith over a minute later slashed one more point off Colgate's lead. From that mark with the score 54-52 at 1:09, the Raiders closed the game with a perfect 6-6 showing from the foul line and an additional layup by Madison Schiller to seal the 62-54 victory.

For the contest, Navy out-shot Colgate, 39.2 percent (20-51) to 37.5 (21-56) from the field and 29.4 percent (5-17) to 17.6 (3-17) from three-point range, but the Raiders held a significant edge at the foul line with nearly twice as many attempts and an 85.0 percent shooting line (17-20), while the Mids only had 11 free throws and converted 81.8 percent (9-11).

Navy won the rebounding battle by six on Wednesday, 37-31, with a minor 8-7 advantage in offensive caroms. Barnett-Gay was a maven on the glass with a game-high 16 rebounds, all on the defensive side of the court. That total is the second-most on the defensive end by a Midshipmen player in program history, trailing only Jennifer Coleman's 20 defensive caroms at Lafayette on Feb. 9, 2022.

Defensively, the Mids forced 15 turnovers and were credited with five steals.

Parking / Shuttle
Fans are reminded that the general public does not have access to drive their vehicles on to the U.S. Naval Academy. Fans may park at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium for a fee and take a shuttle that will run every 10 minutes starting one hour before the game and will continue running until one hour after the game is completed. Fans 18 and over need a government-issued photo ID. Enter Gate 5 off Taylor Ave. to park at the stadium.