ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy women's basketball team is ready to embark on an "iron sharpens iron" stretch of its schedule with four consecutive games versus teams ranked among the top-four in the Patriot League standings. First up, is a Wednesday night rematch against the first-place Lehigh Mountain Hawks on the road. The Mids (15-7, 7-4 PL) will be looking to avenge an 87-66 loss that they took versus the Mountain Hawks (19-4, 10-1 PL) just two weeks ago on Jan. 29 in Annapolis. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. on Wednesday night at Lehigh's Stabler Arena. After Wednesday, the Mids will turn their attention to their Star Game rivalry matchup versus the Army Black Knights on Saturday morning in Annapolis.

One additional storyline to watch on Wednesday night is Zanai Barnett-Gay's hunt for history as the sophomore guard comes into the Lehigh game with 979 career points over 52 games. She's just 21 points shy of becoming the 23rd player in Navy program history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. Should she achieve the milestone on Wednesday, she'd tie Colleen Cassidy for the fastest Mid to 1,000 points. Cassidy netted her 1,000th point early in her junior season of 1980-81 after just 53 career games.

The Navy-Lehigh 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.

Navy vs. Lehigh
The Mids and Mountain Hawks have met 72 times in a series that began on December 8, 1981 ... All-time, Lehigh leads Navy by four wins, 38-34 ... The tight series is also split near evenly among the venues as the Mountain Hawks are 21-15 at home versus an 19-17 advantage for the Mids in Annapolis ... Since the Mids joined the Patriot League in 1991-92, the series is slanted in Lehigh's favor, 36-29 ... Over the last ten matchups, Lehigh has a 9-1 advantage over Navy, with the Mountain Hawks sweeping the four straight season series in 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023 ... A 62-46 victory by the Mids in the teams' matchup on Jan. 31, 2024 ended a nine-game losing streak in the series ...  Navy's last win at Lehigh's Stabler Arena came on Jan. 18, 2017 (a span of six straight losses)    
    Last Five Games:
    Jan. 29, 2025 (H): Lehigh 87 - Navy 66
    Jan. 31, 2024 (H): Navy 62 - Lehigh 46
    Jan. 17, 2024 (A): Lehigh 81 - Navy 65
    Feb. 15, 2023 (H): Lehigh 72 - Navy 38
    Jan. 8, 2023 (A): Lehigh 77 - Navy 42

Most Recent Navy-Lehigh Matchup ... January 29, 2025 in Annapolis
Playing at home for the first time in 11 days, the Navy women's basketball team came out invigorated and hot from all areas of the Alumni Hall court on Wednesday night and posted its highest scoring first half against a DI opponent this season with 46 points. Unfortunately for the Mids (14-6, 6-3 PL) and their home fans, they ran into an equally explosive Lehigh Mountain Hawk (17-4, 8-1 PL) team that also posted 46 points in the first half. Even at the halftime intermission, the course of the game changed in the second half as Lehigh continued with its sharpshooting and pulled away from Navy for an 87-66 victory to strengthen its hold atop the Patriot League standings at the midway mark.

Zanai Barnett-Gay paced the Mids with 19 points to go along with five rebounds and four steals. The reigning Patriot League Rookie of the Week, Julianna Almeida provided strong secondary scoring with a career-best 16 points on 6-12 shooting with a pair of three-pointers. Making her first collegiate start, Morgan Demos had a well-rounded effort with six points, seven rebounds and two assists over 20 minutes of action.

Navy kicked off Wednesday's contest with a strong start that saw it jump out to a 10-4 lead over the first 2:59 of play. Almeida sparked this initial run with a three-pointer on the Mids' first possession before Barnett-Gay rattled off seven straight individual points. Down by six, the Mountain Hawks had a 6-0 retort over three possessions to pull even 10-10 by the 4:58 mark. The yo-yo action swung back in Navy's favor as three-pointers by Kyah Smith and Mary Gibbons helped the Mids go back up six, 18-12 just over two minutes later. Fifth-year sharp-shooter Maddie Albrecht flexed her experience with an unconscious 49-second span that saw her knock down three straight three-pointers to jolt Lehigh into the lead, 21-20 with 1:41 remaining in the first quarter. The teams posted nine combined points, five for Navy and four for Lehigh, over the final 100 seconds of action to leave the game knotted at 25-25. Both teams knocked down four three-pointers in the opening frame.

Just as the first quarter played out, the second stanza followed a similar script with offense early and often. The score advanced with ties at 27-27, 29-29 and 32-32. From that juncture at 6:29, the Mids scored nine of the next 11 points to take their largest lead of the game, 41-34. Demos bookended this run with a pair of layups, including a dynamic offensive rebound and putback at 4:02. As quickly as Navy bolted ahead, Lehigh had a rebuttal of its own with six unanswered points over the ensuing two minutes. With the score 41-40, a second three-pointer by Smith gave the Mids a brief four-point lead before Albrecht fired back with her fourth trey of the half to trigger a 6-0 run over a span of 44 seconds. A buzzer-beating jumper by Demos pulled Navy even as the teams retired to their respective locker rooms deadlocked at 46-46.

The highest scoring team in the Patriot League that came in averaging 70.88 points per game in its first eight conference contests and 69.5 over its first 20 overall games, Lehigh showcased its firepower with a 20-4 start to the third quarter. Trailing 66-50 with 1:41 left in the stanza, Navy had a loud answer of its own with points in four of its final five possessions to the tune of a 10-0 run. 

Down just six, 66-60, the Mids hoped to extend that scoring momentum into final quarter of play and continue their comeback effort. The Mountain Hawks had a much different idea and nearly replicated their start to the previous quarter with a 21-2 run over the first 8:12 of play to go up 25, 87-62. Two points each from Saran Moschella and Nia Henley down the stretch helped Navy closed out the game with an 87-66 score.

In the second half, Lehigh out-scored Navy, 41-20 and shot almost 60 percent (14-24, 58.3%) from the field, while knocking down 10 of 11 free throws. Albrecht added 13 points in the half to conclude her day with a career-high 31 points.

For the game, Lehigh out-shot Navy, 51.8 percent (29-56) to 34.8 (23-66) from the field, 38.1 percent (8-21) from three-point range and 84.0 percent (21-25) to 68.4 (13-19) from the foul line.

Comparing the Teams

(2024-25 Stats)	Navy	Lehigh
Record / League-Only	15-7 / 7-4 PL	19-4 / 10-1 PL
Home / Away / Neut. Record	7-5 / 7-2 / 1-0	11-1 / 8-3 / 0-0
Points Per Game	67.2 PPG	69.7 PPG
Points Allowed Per Game	60.5 PPG	56.1 PPG
Field Goal Percentage	38.0 %	44.3 %
3-Point Percentage	31.3 %	33.9 %
Free Throw Percentage	67.2 %	78.9 %
Rebounds Per Game	41.0 RPG	32.0 RPG
Assists/Turnovers Per Game	13.4 / 13.5	14.3 / 15.1

Individual Leaders

(2024-25 Stats)	Navy	Lehigh
Points Per Game	Zanai Barnett-Gay, 19.7 ppg	Maddie Albrecht, 15.8 ppg
Rebounds Per Game	Z. Barnett-Gay, 8.1 rpg	M. Albrecht, 5.0 rpg
Assists Per Game	Z. Barnett-Gay, 3.2 apg	Colleen McQuillen, 3.1 apg
Field Goal Percentage	Kate Samson, 49.5 %	M. Albrecht, 52.9 %
3-Point Percentage	Mary Gibbons, 36.4 %	M. Albrecht, 38.8 %
Free Throw Percentage	Mary Gibbons, 79.4 %	Whitney Lind, 90.5 %

Last Time Out -- Sunday at Army 
Navy fell victim to a hot-shooting Lafayette squad that knocked down a season-high 60 percent of its three-point shots on Saturday afternoon and came away with a 61-60 victory. In a nip-and-tuck game, that had 11 lead changes and 10 ties, the Leopards (6-16, 3-8 PL) broke out to a 17-11 lead in the first quarter before the Mids (15-7, 7-4 PL) re-took short-lived leads in the third and fourth quarters. Three points by Tasha Chudy in the final possessions of the contest at Alumni Hall pushed Lafayette ahead for the one-point win on the road. 

Zanai Barnett-Gay filled up the box score for the Mids on Saturday as she tied her career-high with 29 points on 13-23 shooting to go along with 13 rebounds, three blocked shots and two assists. Julianna Almeida provided solid secondary support with 11 points and six rebounds. In her third career start, Morgan Demos scored eight points and eight rebounds, while blocking a pair of shots.

The action opened evenly as both teams recorded seven points over the initial 5:15 of the first quarter. In a chain of play, that Coach Tim Taylor lamented about postgame, Tasha Chudy grabbed an offensive rebound for Lafayette and immediately shot a pass out to Abby Antognoli, who swished a three-pointer from the wing at 4:08 to help the Leopards go ahead 10-7. That triple was quickly followed up with another three-pointer by Antognoli. Barnett-Gay short-circuited that 6-0 run and drew Navy back within four, 13-9. The Leopards netted four of the final six points of the quarter to take a 17-11 lead into the break. Lafayette grabbed five offensive rebounds and knocked down four three-pointers in the quarter.

The visitors extended their lead out to a game-high 10 points, 25-15 by the 5:55 juncture of the second quarter. The Mids' comeback effort kicked off on the ensuing possession as Mary Gibbons knocked down a pull-up jumper. Two more baskets, by Barnett-Gay and Demos, swiftly drew Navy back within four by the 4:14 mark. A three-pointer by Almeida at 1:27 cut the Mids' deficit to just two, 27-25. After Lafayette went 2-2 from the foul line in its final possession of the first half, Navy responded with one more long-range strike as Kyah Smith sank a three-pointer right as the quarter expired to make it 29-28 in favor of the Leopards.

The Mids re-took the lead for the first time since early in the first quarter when Demos converted both of her free throw attempts at 7:25 to make it 32-31. A layup by Demos on Navy's next possession advanced the score to 34-33 for the hosts. Another field goal, this one by Barnett-Gay, gave the Mids their largest lead of the game, 36-33. Lafayette dialed up the three-ball once again as Sauda Ntaconayigize pulled the Leopards even the next time down the court before a second trey in as many possessions flipped the score to 39-36. A 6-2 individual run by Barnett-Gay helped Navy edge back into the lead 42-41 by the 1:48 mark. The back-and-forth action continued down the stretch as Lafayette netted four of the final five points to hold a 45-43 lead through 30 minutes of play.

Barnett-Gay's strong second half carried into the fourth quarter as she notched her 19th and 20th points of the game with a jumper 10 seconds into the period. A 5-0 run by the Leopards darted the visitors into the lead before an immediate 6-0 rebuttal by the Mids swung the score back in favor of Navy, 51-50 by 6:33. A trading of baskets, first by Chudy and later by Barnett-Gay as part of an and-one conversion, made it a 54-52 with just over five minutes left in regulation. The fans at Alumni Hall were treated to a thrilling close to the contest as the score was tied at 54-54, 56-56 and 58-58 as the clock ticked under two and a half minutes. Chudy's career-best scoring performance saw the sophomore successfully record her seventh field goal of the game to give Lafayette a 60-58 lead with 2:14 left. A single free throw by Chudy with 42 seconds remaining increased her squad's advantage to 61-58. A driving layup by Almeida six seconds later drew Navy to its final score of 61-60 as both teams' final offensive possessions were stymied by strong defensive efforts.

For the game, Lafayette out-shot Navy, 40.4 percent (21-52) to 34.8 (24-69) from the field and 60.0 percent (9-15) to 13.0 (3-23) from three-point range. The Mids were efficient from the foul line knocking down 81.8 percent (9-11) versus a 71.4 (10-14) mark for the Leopards.

Navy was extra careful with its ballhandling as the Mids only turned the ball over three times. That total is the second lowest in program history and is the best mark during the DI era of the program as the Mids' record is two turnovers versus George Mason on Dec. 6, 1983.