ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's basketball team put an exclamation point on its 2025-26 regular season with an emphatic 72-50 victory over Loyola on Wednesday night. Coming into the contest with 15 league wins, the Mids (21-7, 16-2 PL) clinched sole possession of first place in the program record book with win number 16 on the strength of a dominant 23-6 scoring advantage over the Greyhounds (12-17, 8-10 PL) in the second quarter at Alumni Hall.

With the 2025-26 Patriot League Regular Season Title already attained on Saturday, the Mids came into Wednesday night looking to make history by moving ahead of the 2013-14 team's 15-win mark, while continuing to build momentum for the Patriot League Tournament that starts for the team on Monday with quarterfinal action. Zoe Mesuch (Fr., Clintondale, N.Y.) made sure of just that with a game-high 21 points on an efficient 8-for-12 shooting mark with three three-pointers and a pair of free throws. Additionally, she had three assists and a steal over 29 minutes of action. Julianna Almeida (So., North Arlington, N.J.) and Christina Liggio (Fr., Colts Neck, N.J.) joined Mesuch in double figures as the underclass duo posted lines of 12 and 11 points, respectively.

"We've been working on our defense," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "We weren't very happy with what we did at Colgate. We broke down some film and showed them things that weren't acceptable even though we won. We wanted to pick up the pace tonight. Defense wins championship. When the calendar flips to March you have got to be active and defending. I felt that we pushed the pace early and Loyola matched us, but we have a lot of depth and were able to use that to our advantage.

"We've been reiterating the need to take more open shots. I feel like there's times that we give up good looks and decide to drive it. If you're open we need you to shoot. We told them that great shooters are hitting 40 percent of their shots and really good shooters hit 33 percent so they're missing 67 out of a 100 shots. A light bulb seemed to go off that missing one or two doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. We got excellent effort from up-and-down our roster tonight."

The action on Wednesday night opened evenly as Navy overcame an early 4-0 deficit to knot the game at 5-5 following a Liggio layup at 6:56 and before Mary Gibbons (So., Holden, Mass.) gave the Mids a short-lived lead on a three-pointer as the Greyhounds quickly fought back to make it 10-10 by the 5:02 mark. The game continued progressing with ties every five points as Loyola once again drew even at 15-15 after a Sydney Bass three-pointer at 3:28. An 8-2 close to the quarter helped the host Midshipmen break out to a 23-17 lead through 10 minutes of play. Mesuch started the run with back-to-back baskets in a matter of 10 seconds as she knocked down a jumper and immediately caused a turnover in the backcourt for an easy layup. Almeida and Zanai Barnett-Gay (Jr., Glenn Dale, Md.) tallied the final two field goals for Navy in the quarter as the team ended up shooting 58.8 percent (10-17) in the stanza.

That momentum that the Mids built up at the end of the first quarter carried over into the second as they opened with six straight points over their first two possessions as Liggio sank a three-pointer followed up by a 3-for-3 showing at the foul line by Almeida. Ahead 29-17 at 9:14, Navy was able to extend its advantage up to 16 points four minutes later when Gibbons drove the baseline for a layup at the rim to make it 36-20. After a Kimmie Hicks jumper drew Loyola back within 14 the next time down the court a three-pointer by Mesuch, her third of the first half, energized a 10-1 run to halftime. The freshmen duo of Mesuch and Liggio did most of the heavy lifting offensively during this stretch with Mesuch notching five points and Liggio converting all three of her free throws. The final field goal of the half came from Saran Moschella (Staten Island, N.Y.) as the junior picked off a pass and went in untouched for a breakaway layup to send the teams to the locker room at 46-23.

While Navy's offense was clicking to the tune of a 50.0 percent (7-14) shooting performance with three three-pointers in the second quarter, the Mids' defense was the ultimate story in the 23-6 period as they held the Greyhounds to just 2-9 shooting with nine caused turnovers and a 16-2 advantage in points off turnovers.

Ahead by 23 coming out to start the second half, Almeida helped Navy slowly creep out to a 26-point lead with a personal 5-2 run over the initial 3:01 of play in the third quarter. Loyola was able to whittle its deficit down to 22 (51-29) following an Amandine Amorich free throw at 3:59. The Mids had an immediate rebuttal to this challenge and scored seven of the next nine points to go up by a game-high 27 points with 1:48 left in the quarter. Once again Mesuch and Liggio were the engineers of the offensive action with the duo netting all seven of Navy's points, including a three-pointer by Liggio to cap the run. Trailing 58-31, Loyola responded with seven unanswered points over the next three possessions to tighten the score to a 20-point margin. A three-point dagger by Maren Louridas (Sr., Delmar, N.Y.) with five seconds to go deflated the Greyhounds who had hoped to take that momentum into the final quarter of play.

"When Zoe gets hot like tonight she changes the game," commented Taylor about his standout freshman guard. "She had a great response to her outing at Colgate. She struggled on Saturday, but came out and went 8-12 tonight. She makes us really, really tough on those days."

With the eventual result rarely in doubt, Navy got its entire bench into the contest and cruised in the fourth quarter as Loyola never got closer than 18 (62-44 at 4:46) as the teams went nearly shot-for-shot with the Greyhounds finishing with 12 points in the concluding stanza and the Mids recording 11. Grace Minihane (Fr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) led Navy's efforts in the fourth quarter with four points by way of a pair of driving layup in the final three minutes of play. Sidney Quinn (Fr., Verona, N.J.) and Moschella also left their marks on the scoresheet with respective three-pointers down the stretch. 

For the game, Navy out-shot Loyola, 47.3 percent (26-55) to 32.7 (17-52) from the field, 37.0 percent (10-27) to 27.3 (3-11) from three-point range and 83.3 percent (10-12) to 59.1 (13-22) from the foul line.

The Greyhounds won the rebounding battle with a 37-34 edge on Wednesday night. Quinn Boettinger (Fr., Schwenksville, Pa.) led all players as she tied her career-high with eight caroms.

Navy was efficient with its ball movement with a 15-to-10 assist-to-turnover ratio. Kate Samson (Sr., Richmond, Va.) assisted on a season-high four baskets to lead all participants.

Defensively, the Mids forced the Greyhounds into 17 turnovers and were credited with eight steals. Boettinger and Moschella tied for the game-high with two steals a piece. Samson recorded two Navy's three blocked shots on the evening.

With the results of the four other league contests on Wednesday night the bracket for the 2026 Patriot League Tournament is set with first round matchups between #7 Bucknell and #10 Colgate, and #8 Boston University and #9 American beginning play on Saturday, March 7. The top-seeded Mids will join the tournament action on Monday with a home quarterfinal date with the winner of the #8-#9 game. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at Alumni Hall.

"To win in March, you're going to have to be able to defend and rebound," said Taylor in closing. "That comes from your energy and effort that you bring to game. We preach having togetherness; that's another really big factor in what's led us to this point. We're excited to get started with postseason play this coming Monday."
 
Final Patriot League Regular Season Standings (in seed order)
1-Navy (16-2)
2-Holy Cross (14-4)
3-Army (14-4)
4-Lehigh (11-7)
5-Loyola (8-10)
6-Lafayette (7-11)
7-Bucknell (7-11)
8-Boston Univ. (6-12)
9-American (5-13)
10-Colgate (2-16)