ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Coming off an emphatic road win in its Patriot League opener on Wednesday at Boston, the Navy women's basketball team will dive into the home portion of its league slate on Saturday with a rematch of last year's conference tournament quarterfinals versus Holy Cross. After defeating the Crusaders twice in the regular season last year, the Mids earned the right to host their first tournament quarterfinal game since 2018, but unfortunately for Navy, Holy Cross knocked it off to advance in the postseason tournament. On Saturday at Alumni Hall, the Mids (7-5, 1-0 PL) will look to avenge that loss to the Crusaders (7-5, 1-0 PL) and improve to 2-0 in league action. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday.

The Navy-Holy Cross 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 versus Holy Cross
The Mids and Crusaders have met 77 times in a series that began on January 18, 1992 … All-time, Holy Cross leads Navy, 52-25 with a 24-14 advantage in games played in Annapolis… The two teams had never met prior to the Mids joining the Patriot League in 1991-92 … The series has had multiple lengthy streaks in its history with Holy Cross winning the first eight games, followed by streaks of seven, 10 and 11 consecutive wins by the Crusaders; overall they won 36 of the first 40 games in the series (1992-2008); beginning with the 2009-10 season, Navy swung momentum in its direction with sweeps of the 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2107, 2018 and 2025 season series … Over the last 10 contests, the series edge goes to Holy Cross, 7-3 
    Last Five Games:
    March 10, 2025 (H): Holy Cross 66 - Navy 52  **Patriot League Quarterfinals
    Feb. 22, 2025 (A): Navy 66 - Holy Cross 57
    Jan. 8, 2025 (H): Navy 67 - Holy Cross 56
    Feb. 24, 2024 (A): Holy Cross 71 - Navy 63
    Jan. 10, 2024 (H): Holy Cross 69 - Navy 54

Most Recent Navy-Holy Cross Matchup ... March 10, 2025 in Annapolis
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 and Julianna Almeida 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.

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 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 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. Toni 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.

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 led all players with 10 boards during the contest. That was her fifth double-digit rebounding effort this season.

Comparing the Teams

(2025-26 Stats)	Navy	Holy Cross
Record / League-Only	7-5 / 1-0 PL	7-5 / 1-0 PL
Home / Away / Neutral Record	5-2 / 2-3	4-1 / 3-4
Points Per Game	69.8 PPG	58.8 PPG
Points Allowed Per Game	65.7 PPG	61.9 PPG
Field Goal Percentage	40.6 %	39.2 %
3-Point Percentage	30.5 %	22.7 %
Free Throw Percentage	68.4 %	77.7 %
Rebounds Per Game	39.7 RPG	35.9 RPG
Assists/Turnovers Per Game	15.7 / 15.3	14.4 / 15.3

Individual Leaders

(2025-26 Stats)	Navy	Holy Cross
Points Per Game	Zanai Barnett-Gay, 17.3 ppg	Meg Cahalan, 15.3 ppg
Rebounds Per Game	Z. Barnett-Gay, 7.6 rpg	Simone Foreman, 8.6 rpg
Assists Per Game	Z. Barnett-Gay 3.9 apg	Kaitlyn Flanagan, 4.1 apg
Field Goal Percentage	Kate Samson, 52.9 %	M. Cahalan, 43.1 %
3-Point Percentage	Saran Moschella, 38.5 %	Hannah Griffin, 29.6 %
Free Throw Percentage	Z. Barnett-Gay, 77.8 %	K, Flanagan, 95.5%

Last Time Out -- Wednesday, December 31 at Boston
The Navy women's basketball team turned in a strong performance to kick off its slate of 2025-26 Patriot League action with a road victory over Boston University on Wednesday. The Mids (7-5, 1-0 PL) showed little rust coming off a 10-day break for the holidays and led from the first possession of the game, cruising with a double-digit lead for the final 32 minutes to take a 77-64 win over the Terriers (4-8, 0-1 PL) at Case Gymnasium.

Navy's defensive intensity resulted in 21 caused turnovers and 30 points off those Boston University to spark the visitors to victory. Those miscues also allowed the Mids to be aggressive in their attack with 22 fast break points scored on the afternoon.

Individually, the Terriers had no answer for the Mids' trio of Zanai Barnett-Gay, Zoe Mesuch and Kate Samson, who combined for 51 points on 20-35 shooting from the floor. Barnett-Gay led Navy with team-highs of 18 points, five rebounds and five assists. Mesuch spearheaded the Mids' first half attack with 10 of her 17 points to go along with four of her five ultimate steals. Samson was consistent throughout as she registered 16 points, four rebounds and two blocks in 20 minutes of action.

Wednesday's contest opened evenly as the game was knotted at 4-4 early before Barnett-Gay knocked down her first three-pointer of the day at 7:22. The teams traded baskets for the next two minutes before Navy got hot and turned a 9-8 lead at 6:07 into a 17-8 advantage by the 3:30 mark. Three-pointers by Mesuch and Mary Gibbons on consecutive possessions provided the majority of the offense during this run. After BU's Inez Gallegos made a basket at 2:14 to short-circuit Navy's run, the Mids closed out the quarter with eight of the final 10 points to take a 25-12 lead into the quarter break.

For the period, Navy shot 50 percent (9-18) from the field and 50 percent (5-10) from three-point range to strengthen its offensive effort.

The second quarter began with the Mids continuing to build on their lead as Lizzie Holder and Barnett-Gay went back-to-back with a layup and three-pointer, respectively, to go up 17, 30-13, by the 8:48 mark. Navy's advantage fluctuated between 12 and 17 for the remainder of the quarter as every small run by BU had a Navy rebuttal as the teams retired to the locker room with the score, 41-29. Samson, Mesuch, Julianna Almeida and Christina Liggio all recorded field goals during that portion of the period; accentuated by Liggio's three-pointer at 1:57.

Coming out in the second half, Boston found some success early and pulled to within 10, 43-33 at 7:49. From that juncture in the third quarter, Navy flexed its offensive and defensive prowess to the tune of a 13-2 run as the Mids shot 4-4 from the field, including a three-pointer by Almeida, versus a 1-4 mark for the Terriers with two turnovers. Ahead 56-35, the teams matched points over the final 4:18 of the quarter with nine points each to wrap up the period, 65-44. Once again, points off turnovers played an integral role in Navy out-scoring BU by nine points in the third, as the Mids converted six Terrier turnovers into 11 points.

With the game in hand, Navy expanded its lead to a game-high 24 points within the first 2:09 of the fourth quarter as the visitors scored six of the period's initial nine points to go up 71-41. Samson continued her efficient outing with a 2-2 effort from the floor during this span of play. The Mids held the Terriers at a 20-plus point deficit for the next four minutes as they led 75-52 before the hosts shaved 10 points off of Navy's advantage late down the stretch to conclude the game at 77-64.
  
For the game, Boston out-shot Navy from the field, 48.2 percent (27-56) to 43.3 (29-67), though the Mids out-shot the Terriers from three-point range, 29.0 percent (9-31) to 27.3 (3-11) and the foul line, 83.3 percent (10-12) to 58.3 (7-12).

Boston edged Navy in the rebounding battle, 39-30. The Mids' rebounding was spaced out across their roster as 11 players finished with at least one carom. Barnett-Gay paced Navy with five boards.

The Mids' ball-handling was crisp on Wednesday with an 18-to-8 assist-to-turnover ratio. Barnett-Gay led Navy with five helpers.

Defensively, the Mids forced the Terriers into 21 turnovers and were credited with nine steals. Mesuch recorded a game-high five steals on the day. As a team, Navy converted those Boston University miscues into a 30-5 points off a turnover statistical advantage.

Parking / Shuttle
Fans are reminded that the general public does not have access to drive their vehicles on to the U.S. Naval Academy. Fans may park at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium for a fee and take a shuttle that will run every 10 minutes starting one hour before the game and will continue running until one hour after the game is completed. Enter Gate 5 off Taylor Ave. to park at the stadium. Fans 18 and over need a government-issued photo ID. 
**Starting May 7, 2025, in accordance with The Real ID Act of 2005, visitors entering through the Pedestrian Gate 1 Visitor Control Center or accessing the USNA through the fan shuttle bus for a game should be prepared to present a REAL ID-compliant driver's license, U.S. Passport, enhanced state-issued ID, or another acceptable form of identification, to access federal facilities.  Foreign passports are NOT permitted for general access.