BALTIMORE – Settling into the roll of the hunted as the top team in the Patriot League, the Navy women's basketball team found itself in a 40-minute battle with Loyola on the road on Saturday. Leading by three points at the half, but falling behind by three after three quarters, the Mids (14-6, 9-1 PL) showed its composure down the stretch and out-scored the Greyhounds (9-12, 5-5 PL) by nine points in the fourth to secure the 68-62 victory at Reitz Arena.

Julianna Almeida (So., North Arlington, N.J.) led Navy's effort with a season-high 19 points on 7-15 shooting with three three-pointers to go along with four rebounds. Zoe Mesuch (Fr., Clintondale, N.Y.) provided strong backup with 15 points, while Quinn Boettinger (Fr., Schwenksville, Pa.) paced the Mids' bench performance with 12 points, five rebounds, a block and a +14 plus-minus statistic. Bogged down with foul trouble throughout most of the game, Zanai Barnett-Gay (Jr., Glenn Dale, Md.) registered a complete line of 11 points, five rebounds, three assists and a steal before fouling out in 25 minutes.

"I didn't feel like we had the same type of energy that we've had in recent pre-games," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "We're a young group and this was the first game that we came over on the day of. I felt that we had a terrible start and then we called a timeout and jumped in with them in the huddle a little bit. We came out of that with a really good run and then Loyola made adjustments and came at us with their own run. I thought they [Loyola] had a great game plan; I thought their coaching staff did a really good job. We just weren't in sync the whole game. We had some players make some plays, but offensively, I just felt that we only really had four players on the same page regardless of what five we had on the court. Ultimately, we ended up making enough plays at the end and made our free throws to pull out a win.

"I thought we defended really, really well today. We held them to 2-of-14 in the fourth quarter and we shot 8-of-13 from the field and hit our free throws. They [Loyola] did a good job of limiting our three-point looks. I think the deeper we get into the season, people are aiming to limit our threes and get out on us a bit more. We still shot 6-of-13 from three so you'll take that. Even with them limiting us from three we still shot 45 percent for the day so things opened up for us elsewhere. Shooting 82 percent from the foul line was huge."

The action opened up with the hosts controlling the paint and jumping out to an 8-2 run on 4-4 shooting over the initial two-and-a-half minutes. Almeida put the Mids' comeback effort on her back as she sank consecutive three-pointers to draw Navy even, 8-8 by the 5:32 mark. After Loyola made a pair of free throws to go ahead, 10-8, the guests rattled off 10 unanswered point over the next 2:26 of game action. Four points by Boettinger and a third three-pointer by Almeida sparked this run. With the score 18-10 with 2:30 to go, Loyola turned in a significant rebuttal of its own with seven unanswered points to pull within one. A single free throw by Boettinger in the waning seconds of the quarter ended the frame with Navy up 19-17.

The back-and-forth competitive action carried over into the second quarter as the largest point differential of the entire 10-minute period was four points and that came 48 seconds in courtesy of a Mesuch layup that made it 21-17. Following that field goal Loyola went on a 6-0 run to go up 23-21 before Mesuch fired back with her second three-pointer of the half to put Navy back into the lead 24-23 at 6:26. From that juncture for the next four-plus minutes, the teams traded baskets before back-to-back makes by Almeida and Barnett-Gay flipped a 28-26 deficit into a 31-28 lead with 1:53 remaining in the quarter. Both teams made one field goal over the final 52 seconds as the Mids took a 33-30 lead into the locker room.

Navy survived a first half that saw Loyola shoot 54.2 percent (13-24) from the field and dominate the paint with 22 points down low, included a combined 17 from the Greyhounds' experienced fifth-year forwards Lex Therien and Koi Sims. The Mids' success focused on nine caused turnovers, 10 points off those miscues and five three-pointers.

The second half opened similarly to the first half as Loyola controlled the early play with the first 10 points of the third quarter to bolt out to a 40-33 lead. On it's heals a bit, Navy put an end to that run as Kate Samson (Sr., Richmond, Va.) hit a jumper at 6:04. The senior center recorded her second basket in as many trips to make it a 42-37 contest. The Mids' string of successful trips down the court continued as Almeida and Mesuch went 4-for-4 from the foul line Navy's next two possessions to cut its deficit to three, 44-41. The Mids kept its eyes on the Greyhounds' lead as they twice drew within two points, 46-44 at 1:35 and 48-46 at 0:54 before a final free throw by Loyola's Kimmie Hicks concluded the frame with the hosts up 49-46.

Coming out of the quarter break, Hicks deposited two more foul shots to increase the Greyhounds' lead back up to five, 51-46. That would be the last time Loyola led by that amount as Navy fought back with a 9-2 run to swing the momentum and scoreboard back in its favor, 55-53 punctuated by a Mesuch three-pointer at 5:45. Boettinger, Saran Moschella (Jr., Staten Island, N.Y.) and Almeida all added layups earlier in the run for the Mids. Unfazed by the task of matching up against a more experienced and mature frontline, Boettinger continued having her way in the paint with baskets at 4:54 and 3:08 to put Navy up 57-54 and later 59-56.

Neither team rolled over and Loyola fought back and pulled within one, 61-60 with 54 seconds remaining. The Mids finally connected on a punch that wobbled the Greyhounds enough to open the door and seal the victory on the ensuing possession. Coming out of a timeout, Mesuch took her defender off the dribble and sped through the lane for a layup with 48 seconds remaining to go up three. A miss on Loyola's next time down the court and it became a foul shooting contest down the stretch. Mary Gibbons (So., Holden, Mass.) was the leader of this span of play as she was a perfect 4-for-4 from the line as Navy was able to ice the come-from-behind win, 68-62.

"Zoe made a heck of a play in the fourth quarter," commented Taylor. "Our assistants felt that she could get something one-on-one so we drew up a sideline out-of-bounds play that allowed her to split it and she was able to get there and make a play."

This was the first victory all year by the Mids in which they led for less than 20 minutes as they only were in front of the Greyhounds for 17:31 on Saturday.

For the game, Navy out-shot Loyola in all three disciplines; 44.4 percent (24-54) to 40.7 (22-54) from the field, 46.2 percent (6-13) to 21.4 (3-14) from three-point range and 82.4 percent (14-17) to 65.2 (15-23) from the foul line.

The Greyhounds held a slim, 32-30 edge in rebounds. Barnett-Gay and Boettinger led the Mids' effort on the glass as each player grabbed five caroms on the afternoon.

Navy was active with its ball movement as the Mids finished with 17 assists on 24 made baskets. Christina Liggio (Fr., Colts Neck, N.J.) and Barnett-Gay posted team highs with three assists each.

Defensively, Navy forced Loyola into 12 turnovers and was credited with three steals. Additionally, the Mids blocked three Greyhound shots.

"I was disappointed that we held them to one offensive rebound in the first half and gave up nine in the second half," said Taylor in closing. "I also didn't like our turnover total much, I felt that some of those were unforced and we were just out of sync. I told our team postgame that championship teams have to win these type of games. If you're going to win a championship there are going to be days that you don't play well; how do you tough it out and how do you respond to someone's best shot? I thought we responded to that challenge really well.

"I thought Maren [Louridas] came in again and gave us quality minutes. Her and Saran in the fourth quarter gave us more activity and length. Being able to play without Zanai; she only ended up playing 25 minutes and we were able to pull out a win. That speaks to the depth and well-roundness of our team. We got great contributions from a lot of different players. I thought Quinn was really good off the bench and battling in the post. Julianna carried us offensively. When we needed big shots we were going to her and she was coming through time-after-time. I felt that she had an advantage on offense versus Koi Sims. She finished 7-of-15 and 3-of-4 from three. She jumpstarted us in the first quarter. When you can get Julianna and Zoe to go 12-23, that's pretty good."

Next up for Navy is a Wednesday night home tilt with Lafayette. Tip-off between the Mids and Leopards is set for 7 p.m. at Alumni Hall.