Zanai Barnett-Gay leads Navy women’s basketball in defeat of Lafayette

Navy women’s basketball defeated Lafayette last month, setting multiple records in the process. The Midshipmen scored the most points (97) against Division I opponents and posted the largest margin of victory (39 points) in 87 meetings with the Leopards.

The rematch in Annapolis wasn’t much more competitive.

Junior guard Zanai Barnett-Gay had an outstanding all-around game with 20 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and three steals as Navy once again defeated Lafayette, 62-46, at Alumni Hall.

Freshman guard Christina Liggio came off the bench to score 10 points and grab four rebounds for Navy (15-6, 10-1), which has won eight straight games. All 15 players on Navy’s roster entered the game with 10 scores. The Mids hold sole first place in the Patriot League — two games ahead of archrivals Army (18-5, 9-3) and Holy Cross (15-8, 9-3).

Coach Tim Taylor was asked what Navy did so well to go undefeated over the past month.

“I think the team is really connected and the guys show up every day and train hard. We have a very competitive group of gym rats,” he said. “We’ve talked about winning today. We can only focus on today. Now we have to go out and train well on Thursday.”

Senior center Kate Samson and freshman forward Quinn Boettinger both grabbed seven rebounds for Navy, which led by 33 points with 4:05 remaining in the third quarter. That’s when Taylor emptied the bench and the Mids took a 19-6 lead in the fourth frame to make the final score more respectable.

“We were able to give a lot of kids a lot of playing time and that’s always a good thing. We got a lot of contributions from a lot of different guys,” Taylor said. “You’re down by 13 points in the fourth quarter, you don’t like to see it, but we had four freshmen play.”

Sophomore guard Talia Zurinskas scored 12 points to lead Lafayette (8-14, 4-7), which shot 24.6% (15-of-61) from the field for the game and committed 13 turnovers. Junior guard Teresa Kiewiet had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Leopards, who made just 3 of 24 3-pointers.

“I thought we did a good job of getting the ball quickly and exposing their transition defense,” Barnett-Gay said. “We also did a good job of closing down the three-point line because that was a big thing for them. We were lucky they missed a lot of shots early on so us being able to rebound and push the ball was a big thing for us.”

Taylor said Lafayette played zone defense during the first meeting and Navy attacked from the perimeter. The Leopards primarily played one-on-one on Wednesday night and the Mids didn’t shoot the ball well (33.8% for the game).

Barnett-Gay had a double-double in the first half as Navy led 34-13. Freshman guard Zoe Mesuch scored all nine of her points in the first half for the Mids, who used stifling defense to build a 21-point lead.

Mesuch hit a 3-pointer as Navy closed the first quarter on an 8-0 run to take the lead. Barnett then scored all nine of his points on a 15-0 run to close the second quarter as the Mids turned it into a rout.

Lafayette went 0-for-9 from the field and committed five turnovers while being held scoreless in the final 8:20 of the second quarter. Kia coach Damon-Olson used only two substitutes in the first half and the Leopards were exhausted.

Meanwhile, Taylor used 13 different players to keep everyone in shape as Navy limited Lafayette to 20% field goal shooting (6-for-30) in the first half. The Leopards were 0-for-11 from 3-point range.

“I thought we had some really good surges in the second and third quarters. We defended at a decent level and got some transition opportunities,” Taylor said. “Z was phenomenal, especially in the early stages.”

Navy then delivered a big blow with a 16-1 run in the third quarter that extended the lead to 50-18. Lafayette went 0-for-10 from the field during a scoreless period that lasted more than four minutes.

“We want to increase the speed and feel whether the team only has seven or eight [players] we can use it when we get to the fourth quarter,” Taylor said.

Barnett-Gay agreed that depth without much attrition in talent is a strength for the Navy, saying “we have girls ready to serve at any time. If someone gets tired, we always have someone else ready to serve.”

Navy posted a season series sweep with Lafayette and has a chance to do the same with the other seven teams in the Patriot League starting Saturday at American. Barnett-Gay said Mids need to stay focused and not get too confident.

“We just need to take it one day at a time, not think about ourselves and treat every game as if it is our last,” he said.

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