ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team opened up the first of two days of action at the 2025 Navy Classic with a hard-fought 59-52 victory over Manhattan on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Hall. A game Jasper (0-6) squad stayed within single digits of the Mids (5-1) throughout the second half before the hosts closed the game on an 11-3 run to collect a seven-point victory.

Navy was led by a trio of double-digit scorers on Saturday with Zanai Barnett-Gay (Jr., Glenn Dale, Md.) posting a well-rounded line of 18 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and five steals over 39 minutes of action. Coming off the bench, Mary Gibbons (So., Holden, Mass.) provided the Mids' with excellent three-point shooting in the contest with four treys on her way to a season-high 14 points. Julianna Almeida (So., North Arlington, N.J.) rounded out this group with 11 points, four rebounds and four assists.

"Manhattan did a heck of a job this afternoon; hats off to them," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "We didn't match their intensity throughout the game. They got 20 baskets, but only six assists. That means they were beating us off the dribble. We didn't sit down and guard the way we needed to. I felt like we were on our heels all game. I don't know if we ever found the right group defensively to guard them all game. Mary hit some clutch threes and Kate [Samson] made a couple of baskets down low, they fueled us down the stretch. We didn't have a great practice yesterday and that translated into today's performance. No excuses, Manhattan played well. Luckily, we got back to shooting the three a little better than we did at Richmond.

"Mary's capable of games like this. She's been in the gym working with our coaches to be more consistent with her shot. Even her misses today looked like they were in. She's a heck of a shooter. When we get her, Zoe [Mesuch] and Zanai hitting from three, that's going to cause a lot of issues for our opponents. Add in Julianna, who hit a few today, too. She's also dangerous from three."

The game opened evenly with each team netting four points over the initial four-plus minutes of play. Following a Hana Muhl basket for Manhattan at 5:47 that made it 4-4, Navy responded with back-to-back baskets over a run of 20 seconds as Quinn Boettinger (Fr., Schwenksville, Pa.) led off with a layup before Maren Louridas (Sr., Delmar, N.Y.) picked off a Jasper pass and hit Barnett-Gay for a three-pointer at 5:11. Ahead 9-4 at that time, the Mids grew its first quarter lead up to six, 14-8, as a result of another three-pointer, this one coming from Gibbons at 2:17. From that juncture, the Jaspers closed the period with four unanswered points and the teams retired to their respective benches with the score Navy 14, Manhattan 12.

After knocking down a pair of three-pointers in the first quarter, the Mids continued dialing it up from long distance as they broke open the contest to the tune of a 12-point lead of 27-15 by the 5:30 mark of the second stanza. All 13 of those points came courtesy of the three-ball as Barnett-Gay hit the first triple before Almeida went back-to-back with treys, including a four-point 'and-one' conversion at 8:20. The final triple came off the hand of Gibbons for her second make of the day. Navy turned its attention to the post over the second half of the quarter as Morgan Demos (Sr., Downers Grove, Ill.) and Boettinger combined to record all six of the Mids' final points as they took a seven-point lead of 33-26 into the halftime intermission.

The ebb-and-flow of the action continued into the second half as Manhattan kicked off the third quarter with six straight points before Navy answered back loudly with seven of its own to bubble its lead from one back up to eight. The highlight of this run was another Louridas steal and outlet that resulted in a three-pointer for the Mids as Barnett-Gay made the Jaspers pay with her third three-pointer of the day to increase their advantage to 40-32 at 4:32. As quickly as Navy went up, Manhattan clawed back as the game was tied 42-42 within a matter of three minutes and 18 seconds. Barnett-Gay aided the Mids' cause in the final minute of play with her seventh basket of the contest and the score was 44-42 through three quarters of action. Of note, the teams combined for 15 turnovers in the third stanza, eight for Navy and seven for Manhattan; each team netted nine points off those miscues.

With the final result still up for grabs in the last 10 minutes of regulation, the Jaspers responded to Midshipmen baskets three separate times to pull even at 44-44, 46-46 and 48-48. A successful 'and-one' opportunity by Manhattan's Tatianna Collins helped the visitors take a 49-48 lead into the second half of the quarter. With her team on the ropes, Gibbons put the Mids' offense on her back scoring eight of its 10 points between 4:53 and 1:16 to push Navy back into the lead, 58-52. During this span, Navy's defense forced two turnovers, while holding Manhattan to just one field goal and one free throw. Barnett-Gay added the final point of the game for the Mids to seal the 59-52 victory.

"We executed really well in the last three minutes," commented Taylor. "We ran some sets and got the results we were looking for."

For the game, Navy out-shot Manhattan, 40.0 percent (24-60) to 37.0 (20-54) from the field and 40.9 percent (9-22) to 18.8 (3-16) from three-point range. The Jaspers held a 90.0 percent (9-10) to 40.0 (2-5) advantage in free throw shooting.

The visitors also held a four-rebound edge in the battle on the glass, 38-34. Each team had 14 offensive rebounds. Barnett-Gay and Kate Samson (Sr., Richmond, Va.) led the Mids' cause with seven rebounds a piece.

Navy was moving the ball with purpose on Saturday with 18 assists on 24 baskets. Barnett-Gay posted a game-high seven assists, while Almeida added four helps of her own.

Defensively, the Mids forced the Jaspers into 23 turnovers and were credited with 13 steals. Barnett-Gay also led her squad in this category with a game-high five steals.

"When you feel like you didn't have your best game and you still come away with a win, you take that win. It's hard to win in college basketball," said Taylor in closing. "We're not going to be able to play like this against Duquesne tomorrow. If we think we can, we're going to be in a lot of trouble."

The Mids have a quick turnaround as they be back on Sunday with day two action at the Navy Classic. Tip-off between Navy and Duquesne is set for 1 p.m. at Alumni Hall. The Dukes will be looking to even their record at the two-day event after dropping a 67-60 matchup versus Liberty in game two of Saturday's action.