WORCESTER, Mass. – Hoping to carry over the momentum that it had built up last week prior to Saturday's cancelled contest with Lehigh, the Navy women's basketball team was up to the task and started Wednesday's game at Holy Cross by shooting 62.5 percent in the first quarter. Co-holders of first place in the Patriot League, the Mids (11-6, 6-1 PL) withstood all of the punches thrown their way by the host Crusaders (10-8, 4-3 PL) and led for over 34 minutes, including all of the second half as they earned a hard fought 72-58 victory at the Hart Center.

On the day she was named to the Mid-Major Player of the Year Midseason Watch List, Zanai Barnett-Gay (Jr., Glenn Dale, Md.) was as good as advertised with a packed box score of 19 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, one steal, one block and no turnovers. Zoe Mesuch (Fr., Clintondale, N.Y.) was right there with Barnett-Gay atop the scoring pylon with 19 points of her own on 8-of-10 shooting and three three-pointers. Julianna Almeida (So., North Arlington, N.J.) gave Navy three players in double figures as she added 13 points to the victors' total on Wednesday night.

"The start of tonight's game was really similar to our first matchup in that it was a track meet," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "I thought Holy Cross responded very well when we jumped out to that nine-point lead. They were getting to the basket pretty easily; they had a good game plan. We had to make some adjustments to that and we did. In the second quarter, we held them to 12 points, unfortunately we weren't able to separate from them at that point. We did a good job of controlling the boards, which was something that we didn't do in game one.

"When we went in at halftime, I didn't feel like we were as together as I would have wanted to be. I told them, we needed to pick this up, communicate better and be positive. I kept stressing during the timeouts to stick with it and be positive; we're going to make shots and let's be who we are. I think we did a really good job with that in the second half. We really came through with some crucial plays. They [Holy Cross] was making a run in the third quarter and cut it to six points, but Maren [Louridas] went in and jump-started us. She was crashing the boards and being aggressive on defense. Hats off to her; when the opportunity comes, you better jump on it and she did. I thought Kate [Samson] and Morgan [Demos] did a really, really good job in the second half defensively helping on pick-and-rolls and getting back to match up with [Meg] Cahalan. That was a big part of our game plan; to limit her and her touches."

The action on Wednesday night opened evenly as both squads netted four points over the initial two minutes. A brief 4-0 run courtesy of back-to-back baskets by Mesuch and Almeida pushed the Mids out to an 8-4 lead by the 6:58 mark. The teams traded successful field goals over the next 60 seconds as the Crusaders pulled to within two, 10-8 before Mesuch drove the lane and dropped an easy pass off to Morgan Demos (Sr., Downers Grove, Ill.) for a wide-open layup at 5:48 to make it 12-8. A three-pointer by Mary Gibbons (So., Holden, Mass.) from the top of the arc on Navy's next possession gave the visitors a seven-point lead, 15-8. After Holy Cross called a timeout to re-group after this short run and score on its first possession, Navy answered back with a 6-2 run to expand its lead to 21-12 by the 2:54 juncture of the quarter. Consecutive three-pointers by Mesuch and Barnett-Gay sparked this run. Down the stretch, the Crusaders fought back and scored nine of the quarter's final 11 points to pull with two, 23-21 at the break.

For the period, both teams ended up shooting 10-of-16, as Navy opened up 7-of-9, while Holy Cross closed it by knocking down 5-of-6 shots of its own.

Defense controlled the action in the second quarter as the scoreboard was untouched for nearly two-and-a-half minutes until Mesuch drove through the lane for a layup at 7:40. Trailing 25-21, the Crusaders re-took the lead for the first time since the opening minutes of the game with a short 6-0 run. A four-point rebuttal by the Mids between 4:36 and 4:10 swung the advantage back in favor of the visitors. Over the final four-plus minutes of the quarter the teams traded baskets with Holy Cross pulling even before Navy answered back in three separate exchanges. The final basket of the half saw Barnett-Gay score on the Mids' final possession with less than six seconds to go to turn a 33-33 tie into a 35-33 lead going into the locker room.

Following an ultra-competitive first half in which the teams were separated by just two points, Navy left nothing up for debate in the second 20 minutes of action as the Mids opened the third quarter on a 10-0 run that was capped by another Gibbons three-pointer and a Demos 'and-one' conversion on consecutive possessions. With the score 45-33 at 6:50, Navy kept its foot on the gas and extended its lead out to a game-high 17 with seven of the next nine points. The Mids' potent backcourt did all of the damage during this stretch as Barnett-Gay, Mesuch and Almeida went back-to-back-to-back in a span of 52 seconds to make it a 52-35 game by the 5:20 mark. Putting forth a valiant fight for their home fans, the Crusaders shaved that 17-point deficit all the way down to six, 54-48 with an efficient 13-2 run over a three-plus minutes. Bending, but not breaking, Navy ended the quarter on a high note as Maren Louridas (Sr., Delmar, N.Y.) found Almeida wide open from beyond the arc for a three-pointer with 17 seconds remaining.

As a team, Navy shot 60.0 percent (9-15) from the floor and 100.0 percent (3-3) from three-point range in the third quarter.

Ahead 57-48 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Mids once again used immediate offense coming out of the huddle as they began the final period on a 7-0 run to push their lead back into double digits. Mesuch and Louridas energized Navy during this stretch as Mesuch scored five of those points, while Louridas knocked down the concluding basket. In addition to her field goal, Louridas grabbed three rebounds, two on the offensive end, and assisted on Mesuch's first three-pointer as a part of this three-minute run. Comfortably in the lead, Navy had an answer for every last gasp by Holy Cross as its advantage stayed between 13 and 17 points for the final seven minutes. A pair of free throws by the Crusaders' Mary-Elizabeth Donnelly with 29 seconds left closed the scoring at 72-58 in favor of the Mids.

"We showed a lot of poise down the stretch," commented Taylor. "We handled the basketball well. I thought Zanai did a really good job all around. Julianna had an outstanding second half. When you can have three or at times four different guards clicking, that's dangerous. In the first half it was Zanai and Zoe, and in the second half it was a lot of Julianna and Zoe in stretches. Zanai was a monster on the boards, she had 11 defensive rebounds. That was huge because when she gets defensive rebounds we can get out and run."  
  
For the game, Navy out-shot Holy Cross, 46.8 percent (29-62) to 40.3 (25-62) from the field, 40.0 percent (8-20) to 22.2 (4-18) from three-point range and 100.0 percent (6-6) to 40.0 (4-10) from the foul line.

In a complete reversal from their earlier meeting that the Crusaders out-rebounded the Mids by 14, the visitors flipped the script on Wednesday with a 41-31 advantage in caroms. Barnett-Gay was extremely active on the glass as she tied her season-high with 13 rebounds. In an efficient 12 minutes off the bench in the second half, Louridas snagged five rebounds, including three off the offensive glass.

Defensively, Navy forced Holy Cross into seven turnovers. Barnett-Gay was credited with the Mids' lone steal of the contest.

Navy will now turn its attention to a Saturday showdown versus service academy rival Army. The Mids and Black Knights will do battle on the hardwood in a nationally televised game starting at 11 a.m. from Alumni Hall. CBS Sports Network will carry all of the action from Annapolis.