EASTON, Pa. – The Navy women's basketball team continued their winning ways and posted its second Patriot League victory in as many games with a decisive 71-49 win on the road over Lafayette on Sunday afternoon. Trailing 19-14 after the first quarter, the Mids (10-3, 2-0 PL) completely flipped the scoreboard with a dominant 23-9 rebuttal in the second quarter before extending their lead over the second half of action at the Leopards' (4-9, 1-1 PL) Kirby Sports Center. 

Zanai Barnett-Gay (So., Glenn Dale, Md.) had a hand in 16 of Navy's 28 baskets on Sunday as she led all players with 20 points on 9-16 shooting, while dishing out a game-high seven assists. She filled up the box score with six additional rebounds, three steals and a block. She was joined in double figures by three other teammates: Mary Gibbons (Fr., Holden, Mass.), who scored 13 points on 4-6 shooting from three-point range, Julianna Almeida (Fr., North Arlington, N.J.), who recorded a career-best 11 points to go along with seven rebounds and Kyah Smith (So., Richmond, Va.), who went for 11 points, four rebounds and a game-high +19 plus-minus statistic.

"We had a tough start, but that's probably on me. I wanted to press them [Lafayette] and that turned into open looks," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "We came into this game saying that we wanted to limit their looks at threes and we gave them some open ones in transition. Once we got out of the press and locked them down from beyond the arc, that was the key to our defense and ultimately our success. In the second half they went to a 1-2-2 zone that we hadn't seen so we had to make some adjustments; give credit to Lafayette for that. We were able to counter that and make adjustments of our own and started knocking down some corner threes. Once again, we were getting stops on the defensive end during the second half; it all starts with defense.

"We got contributions from everybody today. We talked about coming into the game that if we get over 15 assists we're pretty hard to beat because that means that the ball is moving."

The action on Sunday began with a significant Lafayette feel to it as the hosts jumped out to a 7-0 lead over the initial two minutes of the first quarter. Just as quickly as the Leopards scored their seven points, the Mids fired back with seven of their own with a three-pointer by Almeida and back-to-back baskets by Lizzie Holder (So., Stillwater, Minn.) coming in a run of three possessions. With the scored 7-7 at 6:44, Lafayette scored 10 of the next 14 points over the next four minutes to re-take a six-point lead, 17-11. Almeida's second three-pointer of the period cut the Mids' deficit to three points before a late Leopard field goal by Kay Donohue concluded the quarter at 19-14 in favor of Lafayette. The Leopards held their five-point lead courtesy of 53.3 percent (8-15) shooting from the floor and 50.0 percent (3-6) shooting from three-point range.

Lafayette matched its biggest lead of the game on its first possession of the second quarter with a Tasha Chudy layup to make it 21-14. Down, but definitely not out, Navy had a loud rebuttal with baskets on five straight possessions, with two makes each, one a jumper and one a three-pointer, from both Almeida and Smith, to flip to score to 26-21 by 7:26. After the Leopards briefly cut it back to three, the Mids' lightning fast attack re-engaged with an 11-3 run to inflate the visitors' lead to 37-24 by 1:43. Barnett-Gay was the engine of this run with nine individual points. A pair of baskets by Lafayette tightened the score to 37-28 at halftime. The 14-point swing from the first quarter saw Navy shot 52.9 percent (9-17) from the field and 50.0 (3-6) from three-point land, while turning seven Lafayette turnovers into 13 points.

The third quarter was a roller coaster as an initial field goal by Barnett-Gay was responded to with an 8-0 run by the Leopards to help them pull within three, 39-36 at 8:09. After a timeout to re-group and adjust its game plan, the Mids countered with an 11-4 run over the next six minutes to go back up by double digits. Three-pointers by Smith and Gibbons were leading factors in Navy's success during this stretch. Ahead 50-40, the Mids extended their lead to 11 with under a minute to go before the quarter break with another Gibbons triple that made it 53-42.

Lafayette's last gasp at victory came early in the fourth quarter as Halee Smith knocked down a shot to draw the Leopards back to a single-digit deficit of nine, 53-44 at 9:17. From that juncture, the Mids sailed to their second straight conference road win with eight unanswered points, six coming from Gibbons via her three-point marksmanship. Up 61-44 at the final media timeout (4:25), Navy added four points to its final margin of victory as Morgan Demos (Jr., Downers Grove, Ill.), Barnett-Gay, Smith, Saran Moschella (So., Staten Island, N.Y.) and Toni Papahronis (Jr., Edmond, Okla.) all recorded field goals, while Lafayette only tallied five total points to wrap up the contest with a final score of 71-49.

For the game, Navy out-shot Lafayette from the field, 45.2 percent (28-62) to 42.0 (21-50), from three-point range, 35.7 percent (10-28) to 25.0 (3-12), and from the foul line, 62.5 percent (5-8) to 57.1 (4-7).

The Mids won the rebounding battle by five, 35-30 with a 10-6 edge on the offensive glass. Almeida posted her second straight game with seven boards as she led Navy on Sunday. Barnett-Gay provided strong support with six rebounds of her own.

The Mids were extremely crisp with their ball-handling with a 17-to-9 assist-to-turnover. Barnett-Gay had a game-high seven helpers, one shy of her career-best.

Defensively, Navy forced Lafayette into 18 turnovers and were credited with nine steals. Barnett-Gay led all players in this category as well with three thefts.

"This was a good team win, everyone played a role," commented Taylor. "Kyah played arguably her best game of the year. I told Z early on that she may not have been getting many looks, but that's okay because she wasn't forcing anything and was still being very effective. I honestly think that this may have been one of Z's best defensive games. She was also excellent as a facilitator with seven assists; that's the kind of efficiency that we want. We did a really nice job with the ball only turning it over nine times, while forcing them into 18. All of that bodes well for us. 

"Once again, Demos gave us some really good minutes. Julianna kept us in the game in the first half with her three three-pointers. She was great all game, 11 points, seven rebounds, two assists and no turnovers in 33 minutes, it doesn't get much better than that. Mary hit four threes and grabbed four rebounds. The two of them [Almeida and Gibbons] came through in crucial situations for us all game. If we can get four players into double figures we're going to be pretty tough. Overall, I'm pleased with the effort. It's hard to win in this league and especially to do it twice in two straight games on the road. You take wins any way you can."

The Mids will continue the early portion of their Patriot League schedule on Wednesday evening when they host the Holy Cross Crusaders in their conference home opener. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at Alumni Hall. Navy's 2-0 start in league play is its best start since 2013-14.