ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team exited the 2025 Patriot League Tournament on Monday evening with a 66-52 loss to Holy Cross. Seeded fourth and hosting a tournament quarterfinal game for the first time since 2018, the Mids (19-11) were unable to answer an early lead by the fifth-seeded Crusaders (19-11) as the visitors led for all but the first 24 seconds in the contest. Down 11 at half, Navy challenged Holy Cross with a valiant comeback attempt in the second half that whittled its deficit down to one, 34-33, at the 4:51 mark of the third quarter, but the Crusaders out-scored the Mids 32-19 over the final 14-plus minutes of the contest, bolstered by a 10-14 showing from the foul line in the fourth period.

The award-winning duo of Zanai Barnett-Gay (So., Glenn Dale, Md.) and Julianna Almeida (Fr., North Arlington, N.J.) led Navy on Monday with a combined 36 points. Barnett-Gay, the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year and All-Patriot League First Team honoree, filled up the line score with a team-high 19 points to go along with five rebounds and five assists, while Almeida, the Patriot League Rookie of the Year, shot 8-16 from the field for 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Toni Papahronis (Jr., Edmond, Okla.) had a well-rounded effort with eight points, six rebounds, three assists and a blocked shot.

"We didn't play well tonight," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "We didn't start well and we just didn't play well, period. That falls on me to make sure that we're ready to go. I just felt that early on we weren't doing the things that we had talked about doing. We were allowing them to get the ball into the pinch post when we were trying to hold them out; they were getting the ball too deep.

"I don't feel that we executed well at all tonight. We weren't moving in the first half like we normally do, they [Holy Cross] were able to clog up the lanes. I don't know if it was the moment or if its because we're a young team; I just don't know. In the third quarter we came out and started moving again; we were getting cuts and getting back-door layups, that's how we got back into the game. Then we didn't get stops on the defensive end and missed some open shots and Holy Cross was able to take advantage. I just don't think that we were very crisp. We shot 2-18 from three tonight, that's tough. I don't know if we've had a game like that all year. We also lost the battle on the boards. They had five players in double figures. They were just a little better than we were tonight."

Getting acclimated to a start time an hour earlier than their usual 7 p.m. tip, the Mids were quite slow out of the gate on Monday as they accounted for just four points through the opening five minutes of play. Luckily for the hosts, Holy Cross had its own struggles offensively as it only mustered six points in the same stretch. Coming out of the media timeout at 4:36, the Crusaders rattled off nine unanswered points over their next five possessions to bolt out to a 15-4 lead by the 2:42 mark. Navy scored the only two points of the final minutes of the quarter, a Morgan Demos (Jr., Downers Grove, Ill.) jumper, and the teams retired to their respective benches with the score 15-6. As a team, the Mids shot just 3-15 from the field in the stanza, while the Crusaders were nominally better at 6-17.

Freshman Mary Gibbons (Holden, Mass.) looked to spark Navy's offensive effort in the second quarter as Demos found her on the wing for a three-pointer just 11 seconds into the period. Holy Cross' lead bounced between six and nine points for the next five-plus minutes before Meg Cahalan knocked down a free throw at 4:43 to make it 22-12. With Barnett-Gay saddled with her third foul of the first half, Almeida took over the final portion of the quarter for the Mids with six points on 3-5 shooting, though unfortunately, the Crusaders answered this run with seven points of their own to take a 29-18 lead into the halftime intermission.

Never one to be counted out, the Mids began the second half with a renewed vigor and started off the third quarter on a 13-3 run over the first 4:26 of play. Held scoreless in the first half, Barnett-Gay was on fire during this stretch with eight of Navy's first nine points before Almeida netted the final four points of this run. Three Holy Cross turnovers during this span resulted in three separate baskets for Navy. With the score 32-31 and soon after 34-33 at 4:51, the two-time defending Patriot League Champions flexed their postseason prowess and registered a 7-2 run to re-extend their lead out to six, 41-35 by the 1:50 mark. Papahronis put an end to this brief run with a driving layup at 1:32. Holy Cross added those two points back to its lead before the quarter break to make it 45-39 through 30 minutes of action. As a unit, Navy shot 8-13 during the period and out-scored Holy Cross, 21-16 overall.

"We made good run in the third when we cut it to one and had a chance to tie it with a free throw, but they came right down and extended their lead," commented Taylor. "Kaitlyn Flanagan really hurt us in that stretch not just with her shots, but with her play-making. I don't think we handled their ball screens very well all game."

The Mids stayed within two-to-three possessions of the Crusaders for most of the initial five minutes of the fourth quarter. With the score 51-43, Holy Cross' Kendall Eddy hit a three-pointer at 4:43 to push her squad ahead by double digits again before Papahronis immediately fired back with a three-pointer of her own just 11 seconds later. Unfortunately, that was as close as Navy would be for the rest of the game as two free throws by Barnett-Gay equaled that deficit of eight later at 2:18, 56-48. A 10-12 showing at the charity stripe over the final 98 seconds of regulation sealed the victory for the Crusaders, 66-52.

For the game, Holy Cross out-shot Navy in all three categories, 39.7 percent (23-58) to 33.9 (20-59) from the field, 28.6 percent (4-14) to 11.1 (2-18) from three-point range and 72.7 percent (16-22) to 66.7 (10-15) from the foul line.

The Crusaders won the rebounding as well on Monday night, 43-37. The visitors had a slight 10-9 edge in offensive rebounds. Maren Louridas (Jr., Delmar, N.Y.) led all players with 10 boards during the contest. That was her fifth double-digit rebounding effort this season.

Navy had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio with an 11-to-10 mark. Barnett-Gay recorded a game-high five helpers.

Defensively, the Mids were only able to turn the Crusaders over eight times in the contest and were credited with four steals.

"It's so tough right now because this group has been through so much," said Taylor in closing. "We fought so hard to get to this point and earn the right to host a home quarterfinal game. I'm so proud of all of our kids. None of us want to see our season end. 

"This group will continue to grow. While I'm not sure if we stand a chance to get a bid into other postseason tournaments like the WBIT or WNIT this year, and I am holding out hope that we are, I'm definitely looking forward to next season with this team. We'll continue to grow and get better. With no seniors this year, we'll have everyone back and in the gym this offseason. We'll get healthier and re-integrate Kate [Samson] and Lizzie [Holder]. Losing those two this season was huge. We had to do too much off the dribble without the ability to throw it in on the block.

"We have a great recruiting class coming in; we have some impressive size and some explosive scoring guards ready to go. I'm really excited about where we're going to be next year. It's just disappointing now because we felt that we had more in us. I feel like we still have a lot more good basketball to play this year."

With the conclusion of action on Monday night, the Patriot League Tournament Semifinals are set with No. 1 Lehigh hosting No. 5 Holy Cross and No. 2 Army hosting No. 6 Bucknell on Thursday.