ANNAPOLIS, Md. – With temperatures hovering below the freezing mark outside of Alumni Hall on Wednesday night, both the Navy and Boston University women's basketball teams struggled throughout most of their matchup to heat up any sort of offensive momentum. At the conclusion of 40 minutes of action, a jolt from the Mids' bench, constant defensive pressure and 19 offensive rebounds helped the hosts pull away for a 57-47 victory. After shooting just 25 percent and holding a slim 20-19 lead at halftime, Navy (13-6, 8-1 PL) improved its output in the second half with a 43.2 percent shooting effort to out-score Boston (7-13, 3-6 PL), 37-28.

Individually, Zanai Barnett-Gay (Jr., Glenn Dale, Md.) did it all for the Mids as she scored 13 points, grabbed eight rebounds, assisted on five baskets and recorded a career-high seven steals in 36 minutes of action. Zoe Mesuch (Fr., Clintondale, N.Y.) tied her teammate with 13 points to go along with four rebounds and three assists. Kate Samson (Sr., Richmond, Va.) gave Navy three players in double figures as she registered 11 points on an efficient 5-8 shooting effort.

"These games are tough. Coming after an Army win that was super emotional. We headed into today's game versus a Boston team that's been playing extremely well as of late," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "I kept telling our team that Boston's improved a lot since we played them a month ago.

"The turnaround for us today was when we put Maren [Louridas] and Saran [Moschella] into the game in the third quarter. I told our staff at halftime, that I felt that we needed a jolt of energy, we needed some speed, we needed something. Our feet looked heavy in the first half. We inserted Maren and Saran to switch things up, turn up our pace and change the look of our press. We wanted to make their bigs take the ball up so we went back our old press and all of sudden we got some things turned around. That substitution was the key for us; it gave us a major jolt."

The action was slow out of the gate as the score crawled out to a 3-3 margin through the initial 4:08 of play. Mary Gibbons (So., Holden, Mass.) doubled Navy's output the next time down the court with a three-pointer from the wing at 5:10. The teams exchanged baskets over the next 90 seconds as the score increased to 8-5 in favor of the Mids. Morgan Demos' (Sr., Downers Grove, Ill.) second basket of the opening frame put Navy up five at 1:23, though BU answered back on the ensuing possession to close the low-scoring quarter at 10-8.

The visitors drew even 54 seconds into the second period to make it 10-10. From that juncture at 9:06, the Mids caught fire, relatively speaking, with a 7-1 run over the next 2:35 with all of the points coming from their talented freshmen class as Mesuch went back-to-back with a jump shot and three-pointer before Quinn Boettinger (Fr., Schwenksville, Pa.) concluded the run with an offensive rebound and putback. With the score 17-11, the Terriers fought back on the strength of their imposing center Anete Adler as she individually was responsible for six of the game's next seven points to pull tighten the contest to one point, 18-17 by the 2:19 mark. Two points for each of Mesuch and Adler down the stretch sent the teams to the locker room with the score 20-19.

In the first half, Navy was held back by just a 25.0 percent (8-32) shooting effort and a 14.3 percent (2-14) showing from three-point range, though its defensive pressure forced Boston into 10 turnovers.

The action in the second half continued to plod along as the Terriers slowly moved into the lead 25-23, 3:33 into the third quarter. Mesuch registered the Mids' only basket during this stretch with a three-pointer on the squad's first possession. Faced with a deficit for the first time since the opening minutes of the game, Taylor looked to his bench for a spark and inserted Maren Louridas (Sr., Delmar, N.Y.) and Saran Moschella (Jr., Staten Island, N.Y.) for their first action on Wednesday. After riding out tied scores of 25-25, 27-27 and 29-29 over the next three minutes, the duo's impact was felt over the final third of the period as Navy out-scored BU 8-2 to pull out to a 37-31 lead. Giving the Mids a much-needed infusion of energy, Louridas grabbed two rebounds, scored two points and added an assist, while Moschella helped Navy's cause with two points and two rebounds. More importantly though, the duo changed the physical look of the Mids' lineup and helped to counter the Terriers' post duo of Adler and Anastasiia Semenova.

Quiet through three quarters of play with six points, five rebounds and three steals, Barnett-Gay flashed the dynamic skillset that makes her a frontrunner for the league's player of the year honor in the fourth quarter when her team needed it the most. With the score 37-33, Barnett-Gay sparked Navy with an individual 5-0 run within 46 seconds as she sank a three-pointer off a baseline out-of-bounds play before depositing a second-chance layup off a Boettinger offensive rebound at 8:27. Her strong play translated over the rest of the Mids' lineup as that 5-0 run increased out to 10-0 as a pair of Boettinger free throws at 6:51 made it a 14-point game, 47-33. Boston valiantly tried to keep pace with Navy and cut its deficit down to nine points three times between 5:11 and 2:50, but in each case the Mids had an immediate retort, twice by Samson and the third time by Barnett-Gay. A final layup by Mesuch with 45 seconds remaining iced the victory for the hosts as they extended their win streak to six games with a 57-47 ultimate score.

In Navy's 20-point fourth quarter, Barnett-Gay provided her squad with seven points, three points and four steals in 8:11 of action, while Boettinger crashed the glass with five rebounds and facilitated three baskets via assists. In keeping with her instant-energy role that started in the third quarter, Louridas played 6:22, grabbed two rebounds and was a +5 in the plus-minus statistic.

For the game, Boston out-shot Navy 36.0 percent (18-50) to 34.8 (24-69) from the field, 27.3 percent (3-11) to 18.2 (4-22) from three-point range and 61.5 percent (8-13) to 50.0 (5-10) from the free throw line.

The Mids made up for their short-comings with their shooting on Wednesday with a dominant 10-rebound advantage, 45-35, in the battle on the glass. Boettinger and Barnett-Gay tied for the team lead with eight caroms each.

Navy's ball-handling was clicking on Wednesday with an 18-to-10 assist-to-turnover ratio. Barnett-Gay paced the Mids with five helpers.

Defensively, Navy forced Boston into 18 turnovers and was credited with nine steals. Barnett-Gay was constantly pestering the Terriers' offense with a career-high seven steals to go along with one blocked shot. In total, Navy blocked five BU shots.

"This was one of the most unsettled games that I have had coaching from an x's and o's standpoint," said Taylor in closing. "I felt that if we came out and our four guards were hitting threes, we'd stretch them out and make them match our personnel and eliminate their size advantage. If we aren't hitting threes now we'll have to adjust on our side. We came into tonight with three different game plans, first with four guards, but we weren't hitting threes, then with two bigs, but I didn't feel that we were playing fast enough, so then we pivoted and went a little bigger with Maren and Saran and we could switch them onto the three and four. They put forth a great fight and I thought that was huge. That change got us going. Then you add in Zanai, who just wrecked the game defensively with steals and getting out in passing lanes. She did a heck of a job with that. We were able to throw a lot of bodies at their posts all night. Kate, Quinn and Demos really battled. At some point that physicality is just going to wear you down.

"I challenged them to win the rebounding battle tonight because we lost it up their last month; we did that tonight. Against Army it was 49-28 and before that we were plus 10 at Holy Cross. If you can rebound like that, that means you're active and defending."

With its season series sweep of Boston in its rearview mirror, Navy will head to Loyola on Saturday for its first matchup of 2026 with the Greyhounds. Tip-off at Reitz Arena is set for 4 p.m.