WEST POINT, N.Y. – With the 2026 Women's Basketball Star, service academy bragging rights, pride and the first seed in the upcoming Patriot League Tournament all on the line in front of a national TV audience on Saturday, the Navy women's basketball team put forth a 40-minute fight and battled back from a nine-point deficit to defeat Army on the Black Knights' home court by a score of 54-51. Knowing what lied ahead for them on Saturday at Christl Arena, the Mids' (19-7, 14-2 PL) chances looked grim early as the Black Knights (21-6, 12-4 PL) jumped out to a 16-7 lead in the first quarter and seemingly had Navy thrown off its game. A slow and consistent attack over the final 30 minutes of play helped the Mids come from behind and secure the program's first Star since 2018 and at a minimum a piece of the Patriot League regular season title for the first time since 2014.

The victory by the women's team in conjunction with the win by the Navy men's team later in the day clinched the 2025-26 Army-Navy Star Series, presented by USAA, for the Mids.

Playing in her first Star Game in from of a large contingent of hometown friends and family from nearby Clintondale, Zoe Mesuch (Fr., Clintondale, N.Y.) led all players with 14 points, including 11 in the second half. Julianna Almeida (So., North Arlington, N.J.) provided strong support with 12 points, five rebounds and three assists. The trio of Zanai Barnett-Gay (Jr., Glenn Dale, Md.), Morgan Demos (Sr., Downers Grove, Ill.) and Mary Gibbons (So., Holden, Mass.) all added eight points a piece with Barnett-Gay augmenting her line with nine rebounds and six steals.

"That was a heavyweight fight and one heck of a college basketball game. Fans got to watch two great teams battle for 40 minutes" remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "We consistently talk about how we handle adversity and how do we bounce back. We had to bounce back from our Lehigh game; we had to bounce back from being on the road since Tuesday and then in the game today, how were we going to bounce back from going down by nine. We weren't shooting particularly well, we were turning the ball over and we just didn't look in sync; I felt that the environment might have had a lot to do with that. We weathered that storm and I'm extremely proud of that. We kept stressing that today was going to be a game of runs and to ride it out. I thought when we settled in and got it to six, then we held it at six for a bit and got it to three at the half: I thought we should feel pretty good about that because we hadn't played all that well.

"In the first half, Army was dictating everything defensively and even offensively, I felt that they were getting out and getting transition buckets. We were forced to run a lot of clock on offense. They're a veteran team with a lot of pride. They were really defending at a high level. We were just rushed a lot in the first half. Coming out in the third quarter, we got some steals and started getting some things going. Once we got the lead, we our kids were like 'okay, we're good' and started settling in. Unfortunately that didn't last long and they [Army] ended the third quarter on a nice run to go up one. So that was one more thing for us to overcome and respond to. I thought our kids did a tremendous job of fighting."

Playing in front of a loud, boisterous crowd at Christl Arena, the Mids found themselves in an early 9-3 hole by the first media timeout at 5:00. Gibbons was the only player to find the bottom of the net in these early goings on as Demos passed out of the paint and hit Gibbons for a three-pointer from the wing at 7:27. Up by six at the mid-way mark of the quarter, Army slowly extended its lead to a game-high nine points at 1:48 when Soleil Montrose went 1-for-2 at the foul line. Barnett-Gay immediately responded less than 10 seconds later with a pull-up jumper. The hosts re-extended their lead to nine, 16-7 on their final possession of the first quarter on a Reagan Reardon layup before Almeida beat the buzzer to make it a 16-9 score through 10 minutes of play.

The Mids were held back in that opening quarter by a 23.1 percent (3-13) shooting effort and six turnovers.

The second period opened slowly as the teams combined for just three made baskets in the first five minutes of the quarter; two for Navy and one for Army. Almeida hit the second of those two shots, a three-pointer from the corner at 6:47. The Mids continued shaving points off its deficit at 3:20 when Almeida found Kate Samson (Sr., Richmond, Va.) deep in the post for a layup. That four-point differential was short-lived as Reardon responded with a three-pointer to make it a seven-point game. Following a pair of Almeida free throws, a steal by Gibbons and outlet pass to Mesuch for a three-pointer with 57 seconds left in the period helped Navy rattle off five unanswered points and draw within two, 23-21. Once again, the punch-for-punch action saw Army fire back with a three-point retort, this time from Reese Ericson. A layup by Demos on the Mids' final possession of the half helped the visitors win the quarter 14-10 and trail by just three points going into the locker room at halftime.

Navy's defense set the tone in the second quarter as it held Army to 23.1 percent (3-13) shooting from the field, while forcing three turnovers.

Coming out after half down 26-23, the Mids turned to their senior power forward Morgan Demos to take their first lead of the day as Demos won a pair of battles in the paint for back-to-back layups at 9:09 and 8:04. A throne in Navy's side throughout her four years at Army, Ericson answered the call for her club the next time down the court as she swished a three-pointer 18 seconds later to flip the score back in the Black Knights' favor by a count of 29-27. The back-and-forth one-possession action carried on for the next two minutes as the Mids held their one-point lead to 5:44 when it was 34-33. A 5-0 run by Navy on consecutive possessions between 4:46 and 4:14 gave the visitors their largest lead of the game. A steal and fast break layup by Barnett-Gay and a three-pointer by Mesuch energized this run. An immediate 8-0 rebuttal by Army gave the Black Knights a 41-39 advantage with a minute to play in the third quarter. The teams traded makes, one a Mesuch field goal and one a Montrose free throw to close the period out at 42-41, Army.

Undaunted by battle at hand in front of a hostile audience, Navy's underclass sparked the team's final takeover in the fourth quarter. Trailing by one, the duo of Mesuch and Almeida scored on the first two possessions, Mesuch a driving layup and Almeida an 'and-one' conversion. After that old fashion three-point play from Almeida, Navy was ahead 46-42 with 8:45 left in regulation. Almeida's number was called again two-plus minutes later and she came through to increase her squad's lead to five, 48-43 at 6:05. A three-pointer by Ericson next time down the court gave the hosts a slight bit of momentum heading into the under-five media timeout. The Mids' defense locked down the Black Knights and the eventual victory with four minutes of shutout basketball as they slowly edged out to a six-point advantage with back-to-back layups. With the score 52-46 with 1:14 left in the contest, a Reardon layup had an immediate response with a Gibbons layup on the ensuing possession. Up six with 30 seconds to go, Ericson went down swinging for the Black Knights with her fourth three-pointer of the day falling with 14 seconds to go. A tie-up gave Army one last ditch effort to tie the game, though Navy's defense thwarted the Black Knights' best looks as Ericson was forced to launch an off-balanced three-pointer that flew off-target at the buzzer to clinch the 54-51 victory for Navy.

"When that clock struck zero, the first thing I thought about was not the Star, was not winning the game, but it was about our four seniors," said Taylor. "They were the first group of kids to buy into this vision for Navy Women's Basketball. They came to Annapolis with grandiose ideas and then we go 1-29. That would break a lot of people, but this group kept fighting. They've been fighting for four years. I felt such pride for them. When they went to pick up the trophy, I was so happy for them, they deserve it. They are the foundation of this program; they are legends in this program. We want this program to be on the national stage and they've helped build that.

"Overall, I was really proud of our team today. They stayed together. They've bought into what we've been preaching all year that the most together team, not necessarily the most talented team, but the team that buys in and shows up every day will succeed. It's not just the people playing on the court, but everyone on the bench too. They show up every day and bust their tails. I've got to tip my cap to that group because they are the reason that we are succeeding at this level. We had a small rotation today, but they've been playing so well recently. We have a very talented basketball team from top-to-bottom."

The victory was the first for the Mids at Christl Arena since 2021 and the program's first Star win since 2018. The victory also clinched the season series over the Black Knights and gave the Mids a two-game lead in the Patriot League standings with two games to go. On the basis of that sweep, Navy sealed possession of the number one seed in next month's Patriot League Tournament. At a minimum, the Mids would be co-regular season champions; their magic number to earn the outright crown is one.
 
For the game, Navy out-shot Army, 38.6 percent (22-57) to 37.3 (19-51) from the floor and 71.4 percent (5-7) to 55.6 (5-9) from the foul line. The Black Knights were crisp in their three-point shooting with a 50.0 percent (8-16) effort, while the Mids shot 31.3 percent (5-16).

The rebounding battle ended in a deadlock, 34-34. Barnett-Gay was active on the glass with a game-high nine rebounds.

Defensively, Navy was dynamic with 11 steals and four blocked shots on Saturday. Barnett-Gay had a hand in seven of those with six steals and a block. The Mids were able to turn those Black Knight miscues into 18 points off turnovers.

"There were stretches of the game where every player was a lynchpin in this win. Demos and Kate held Kya Smith to zero points; that's huge, she came in averaging almost 14 points a game. Demos made some really good decisions today, whether on offense driving or passing or on defense. Julianna had that stretch were she made two tough, clutch shots late in the clock. At the end of the game, we went to Zoe as we were able to get her free to drive to the rim.

"Our defense today was phenomenal. I thought Z's defense was outstanding, especially in the second half."

Navy will be away from the hardcourt for a week as the Patriot League takes its annual mid-week bye. Next up for the Mids will be a trip to Hamilton, New York for a Saturday matchup versus the Colgate Raiders. Tip-off at Cotterell Court is set for 2 p.m.

"Clinching the one seed and home court advantage is exciting," said Taylor in closing. "This was a big game, but honestly we didn't talk about the standings coming into it, we were focused on winning the Star. I knew and the staff knew, but we did not mention it to our team. We just showed up and tried to handle our business. I want to give a shoutout to Faith Randolph [strength/conditioning], Reese Dait [nutrition] and Peyton Lear [athletic training]. We had met with them ad nauseum trying to prepare these kids for this trip. This was a very difficult week. We went to Lehigh on Tuesday, came back around midnight on Wednesday, turned around got back on a bus to West Point on Thursday after class. What they were able to do and help prepare us to play four quarters in this environment was outstanding; hats off to them! I want to give kudos to my assistants, they were phenomenal during the game with great suggestions and keeping the kids up and locked in and never too high or too low."