ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The top-seeded Navy women's basketball team had a battle on its hands Monday night in the quarterfinals of the 2025-26 Patriot League Tournament with a showdown versus the eighth-seeded Boston University Terriers. Trailing by one point through one quarter of play and two with three-and-a-half minutes to go in the third quarter, the Mids (22-7) rattled off a 20-2 run in the final minutes of that frame and initial 67 seconds of the fourth quarter to flip a 45-43 deficit into a 63-47 advantage over the Terriers (11-20). That momentum carried the team to victory as Navy closed out Boston by a final of 76-66 in front of its home fans at Alumni Hall.

The Mids were led by an electric and record-breaking performance by freshman Zoe Mesuch (Clintondale, N.Y.), who showed zero nerves in her first-ever Patriot League Tournament game. Mesuch was hot throughout the contest with at least six points in each quarter on her way to a career-high 31 points on 11-of-17 shooting and an 8-for-12 mark from three-point range. Her marksmenship from beyond the arc set a new Patriot League Tournament single-game record as the previous high was seven by Navy's Maile Shimoda versus Bucknell in the 2003 tournament. Strong in support of the 2025-26 Patriot League Rookie of the Year was Zanai Barnett-Gay (Jr., Glenn Dale, Md.), the 2025-26 Patriot Player of the Year. Barnett-Gay filled up the box score on Monday night with 16 points and a season-high 14 rebounds to go along with two assists in 38 minutes of action. Navy's third All-Patriot League honoree, Julianna Almeida (So., North Arlington, N.J.) also shined versus BU with 13 points, including nine as part of the Mids' 24-point third quarter.

Navy would need all of points from its Big Three as Boston University shot 50 percent from the field and was fueled by a 33-point performance from its 6'5 center Anete Adler.

"That was a really good competitive game," remarked head coach Tim Taylor. "I thought Boston played well tonight. They've been playing extremely well the past few weeks leading into the tournament. They're really hard to match up with because of [Anete] Adler. She might be the most improved player in the league from last year to now. Some of her moves just made you say 'wow.' People might ask why we didn't double her more, but her twos don't add up to our threes, that was the case tonight.

"I felt that our stars stepped up. When went through a stretch where we isolated Julianna and she was able to get us a few points in row. Zoe was really good all night long. Then you have Z, the Patriot League Player of the Year, who we let take over in the fourth quarter. She had their attention tonight with seven fouls drawn."

The game opened evenly with each team netting five points over the first three minutes of action. After Boston went up 7-5 on an Anete Adler layup at 6:44, Navy responded with eight straight points to break out to a 13-7 advantage. Back-to-back three-pointers from Mesuch and Barnett-Gay energized this run before Kate Samson (Sr., Richmond, Va.) closed it out with a mid-range jumper at 4:56. The momentum immediately swung back to the Terriers with a 9-0 run of their own to make it a 16-13 score with 90 seconds left in the period. A pair of free throws by Almeida closed the quarter with BU ahead 16-15.

After scoring six points on 2-of-2 shooting from three-point range in the first quarter, Mesuch picked up right where she left off as six seconds into the second period Almeida found her in the wing for her third three-pointer of the game and Navy was back into the lead, 18-16. Mesuch continued with the hot hand as she knocked down her fourth triple in as many tries a little over a minute later to even the score at 21-21. Her trey kickstarted a larger 8-0 run by the Mids as she nailed her fifth three-pointer at 7:26 before Christina Liggio (Fr., Colts Neck, N.J.) cut through the lane for an acrobatic layup to give the hosts a 26-21 lead by the 6:21 juncture of the second quarter. Boston slowed Navy down for the next five minutes as the Mids were held to just one made field goal and one free throw to allow the Terriers to re-take the lead 30-29 with 71 seconds to go in the half. Three free throws down the stretch by Navy helped it retire to the locker room at halftime up 32-30.

The second half opened with similar ebbs and flows as the BU drew even (34-34) by the 8:09 mark before Navy scored seven straight points and nine of 11 to build out a seven-point leads of 41-34 and later 43-36. Mesuch was the catalyst for this run with her sixth three-pointer followed by six consecutive points via Almeida. Trailing by its then- largest deficit of the game, the Terriers had a strong 9-0 rebuttal to shoot back into the lead 45-43 with 3:18 remaining in the stanza. That was a turning point for the Mids as they closed the quarter on a 13-2 run with a perfect 5-for-5 showing at the foul line and consecutive three-pointers by Liggio and Mesuch. A driving layup as time expired by Mesuch concluded the quarter with Navy up 56-47.

The dynamic underclass duo of Almeida and Mesuch were untouchable in the third quarter as Almeida shot 3-of-4 from the field and 3-of-3 from the charity stripe for nine points, while Mesuch was a perfect 3-for-3 from the field and 2-of-2 from three-point range for a combined 17 points.

Hot down the stretch in the third, Navy kept blitzing BU offensively with seven more unanswered points to open the fourth quarter. Morgan Demos (Sr., Downers Grove, Ill.) recorded the Mids' first basket before Mesuch added five more points in quick succession to increase Navy's lead to 16, 63-47 with 8:53 left to play. Down, but not out BU kept fighting and kept pounding away in the post with eight more points from Adler to pull within nine, 65-56 before later drawing even closer as a result of an Ines Monteagudo three-pointer that made it 67-59 at 5:21. The Terriers wouldn't get any closer for the remainder of the contest as the Mids had an answer for every glimmer of hope that they had left. Four second-chance points from Samson helped seal the victory as Navy walked away with a 76-66 decision.

"Our kids battled for 40 minutes," said Taylor in closing. "I thought Morgan [Demos] and Kate [Samson] had their hands full tonight, but did a really good job of being physical with Adler. When we got some separation, Kate was really controlling it down low. She had a block and a steal. Those aren't plays that will necessarily show up when highlighting our big run, but they were really important."

For the game, Boston University out-shot Navy, 50.0 percent (28-56) to 40.6 (26-64) from the field, though the Mids held advantages in three-point shooting, 35.7 percent (10-28) to 33.3 (5-15) and foul shooting 73.7 percent (14-19) to 38.5 (5-13).

Navy won the rebounding battle by four, 38-34 on the strength of an 11-5 edge on the offensive glass. Bolstered by 11 caroms in the first half, Barnett-Gay finished with a season-high 14 rebounds.

The Mids had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio on Monday night with a 14-to-10 mark. Almeida was the leading facilitator with four assists.

Defensively, Navy forced Boston into 12 turnovers and was credited with seven steals. Samson and Liggio each had two steals.

With the Mids' victory they'll advance into the semifinals of the Patriot League Tournament with a Thursday night matchup versus the fourth-seeded Lehigh Mountain Hawks, who knocked off Loyola, 68-54 in their respective quarterfinal. Tip-off between Navy and Lehigh is set for 7 p.