ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team kept hold of the top spot in the Patriot League standings on Saturday afternoon with a gutsy, hard-fought 49-47 victory over Bucknell at Alumni Hall. Leading by as much as 13 points in the first half, the Mids (13-4, 5-1 PL) withstood an 11-point swing by the Bison (8-9, 3-3 PL) as Zanai Barnett-Gay (So., Glenn Dale, Md.) netted the go-ahead basket just over six seconds left in regulation.

Julianna Almeida (Fr., North Arlington, N.J.) and Kyah Smith (So., Richmond, Va.) paced Navy's offense as they each scored 11 points. Barnett-Gay nearly recorded a double-double as she finished with nine points and 10 rebounds to go along with three assists. 

"You take wins away you can," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "We missed too many layups today. We had at least four opportunities in the third quarter that really could've not let them [Bucknell] get back in the game. We were missing shots and they were coming back down and knocking down their shots.

"One of our goals for today was if [Ashley] Sofilkanich was going to get 20 points we were going to make her take more than 20 shots; she took 24 shots and scored 21. We did a good job of limiting their three-point looks outside of their one make in the fourth quarter when we went under a ball screen. Honestly, if you told me we would hold them to 47 points, I felt that we would've won by a little bit more than two. Trevor [Woodruff, Bucknell's head coach] does a good job defensively with his team. We just missed too many layups."

The action on Saturday was slow building as Bucknell tallied just two points over the opening four minutes, while Navy only made two baskets, though fortunately both of those makes were from three-point range. Almeida connected first at 9:01 before Maren Louridas (Jr., Delmar, N.Y.) followed her up at 7:43. Four straight points for the Bison evened the score at 6-6 by the 4:23 mark. Down the stretch, the Mids scored five of the final seven points to take a 11-8 lead into the quarter break.

Navy built off that momentum with the first seven points of the second quarter as Almeida went back-to-back with a jumper and three-pointer before Lizzie Holder (So., Stillwater, Minn.) capped the run to make it 18-8 at 8:11. Just under two minutes later, Bucknell finally found the bottom of the net with an Ashley Sofilkanich layup at 6:14. The Mids didn't let the Bison linger within single digits long as Almeida and Barnett-Gay notched consecutive baskets to push the hosts up 12, 22-10 by the 4:18 mark. Over the next four minutes, the teams were nearly even as Bucknell scored six points, while Navy tallied five to make it 27-16 late. Kelli Giuliani (Jr., Oakton, Va.) helped the Mids match their largest lead of 13 as she grabbed an offensive rebound and immediately flipped up a layup with six seconds left in the half. As part of its excellent defensive first half effort, Navy held Bucknell to 28.6 percent (8-28) shooting, zero three-pointers and forced 10 turnovers.

Coming out with the score 29-16, the Mids started off ice cold as they were 0-5 from the field over the first three-plus minutes. During this span of play, the Bison rattled off seven unanswered points. A three-pointer by Smith at 6:26 sparked Navy and her individual performance as she scored five quick points to respond to Bucknell. Following her second make at 5:37 with the score 34-25, the Bison tightened the game further with eight of the final 11 points of the quarter.

After shooting just 20.0 percent (3-15) in the third period and seeing its 13-point halftime lead whittled down to four, 37-33, Navy was staunch defensively to start the fourth quarter and held Bucknell without a successful field goal until the 6:13 point of the period. Unfortunately for the Mids, their offense wasn't able to find much footing and only tallied one make of their own, another Smith three-pointer. With the scoreboard showing less than five minutes on the clock and Navy with a 40-37 lead, the Mids broke out a 7-1 run between 4:43 and 3:28 to go back up nine. Mary Gibbons (Fr., Holden, Mass.) was a catalyst for this late run with five points, including her first trey of the day. Trailing 47-38, Bucknell scored nine unanswered points during a span of 2:40 to 0:57. Tied 47-47 with less than a minute to go, Navy turned in a methodical 50-second possession that saw Holder extend her team's chance with an offensive rebound of a missed shot. Resetting their offense out of a timeout, Barnett-Gay drove the lane and laid in the go-ahead basket for the Mids with six seconds remaining. Tough defense on Sofilkanich on the Bison's final possession resulted in a missed shot at the buzzer and the Mids were victorious 49-47.
 
For the game, Bucknell out-shot Navy from the field, 36.2 percent (21-58) to 30.0 (18-60) and from the foul line, 80.0 percent (4-5) to 63.6 (7-11). The Mids had a bit more success from the three-point line as they shot 28.6 percent (6-21) versus a 10.0 percent (1-10) mark for the Bison.

In the rebounding battle, Bucknell grabbed eight more boards, 45-37. Barnett-Gay and Louridas each finished with 10 caroms on Saturday.

Navy's ball-handling was crisp with a 13-to-7 assist-to-turnover ratio. Louridas had a team-high four assists.

Defensively, Navy forced Bucknell into 14 turnovers was credited with five steals. Barnett-Gay led the Mids with two individual steals.

"The lesson from today, was that you can't let up," said Taylor in closing. "We had an unbelievable first half. Defensively, we were doing things the right way and hold them to 16 points. Then all of a sudden in the second half, we miss a few shots and they hit some; we allowed them to get their confidence back.

"We need to keep our focus for the full 40 minutes. I think some times we go in at halftime with a big lead and we come out stagnant. We have to figure out a better way to start the second half; that's on me. Before this recent stretch, we've been pretty good coming out in the third quarter. I don't think our message has changed so we'll have to figure it out what has been different the last couple of games."

Navy will next be in action on Wednesday with a morning matchup at Boston University. The game against the Terriers is the first of a two-game road trip next week that will culminate on Sunday with a rivalry game versus Army at West Point. Tip-off between the Mids and Terriers is set for 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday.