Mids unable to hold lead
Turnaround season ends in quarterfinals despite Barnett-Gay’s 19
Both the potential and the inexperience of Navy women’s basketball were on display during Monday night’s Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal against Colgate.
The Midshipmen played probably their best half of basketball in taking a commanding lead on the second-seeded Raiders. However, their youth and lack of big-game experience showed through during a second-half collapse that allowed the home team to escape an upset.
Fifth-year guard Alexa Brodie scored 21 of her career-high 25 points in the second half to spark a furious rally that gave Colgate a 69-64 victory over Navy before a raucous crowd at Cotterell Court in Hamilton, New York.
Brodie did most of her damage from the charity stripe, making 17 of 18 free throws on the way to surpassing 1,000 career points.
Senior forward Tiasia McMillan scored 17 points for Colgate (18-12), which will host Boston University in Thursday’s semifinals.
Freshman guard Zanai BarnettGay scored 19 points to lead seventh-seeded Navy (14-17), which led by 19 points late in the second quarter. Senior forward Sydne Watts came off the bench to hit four 3-pointers in scoring 18 points for the Mids, who were outscored 40-20 in the second half.
“Our inexperience and immaturity showed up a little bit toward the end. I felt that we played a little tight and not to lose,” Navy coach Tim Taylor said. “We feel like we gave one away. I’m disappointed because we felt like we would win the whole tournament.”
Freshman guard Kyah Smith scored 16 points and dished off eight assists for Navy, which could
not add another chapter to one of the greatest turnaround stories in women’s college basketball this season. The Midshipmen showed dramatic improvement after posting a 1-29 record in 202223.
The Mids made five straight field goals to start the game and their hot shooting continued throughout the first half. Watts came in and swished 3-pointers from the top of the key on consecutive possessions and that sparked a 10-3 run to close the first quarter, giving Navy a 24-16 lead.
Smith made a jumper to start a 14-4 run in the second quarter that propelled the Mids to their largest lead.
A jumper by Barnett-Gay made it 43-24 with 2:17 left in the second quarter. But a 3-pointer by Amarah Streiff cut the Colgate deficit to 15 (44-29) at halftime.
“We show flashes of what we’re truly capable of doing,” Taylor said. “Offensively, the ball was moving really well, we were getting open looks and making shots. Defensively, we were on point with our matchups and challenging shots. We were keeping our hands high and boxing out.”
Navy shot a sizzling 68% from the field (19-for-28) in the first half and Colgate coach Ganiyat Adeduntan faulted the defensive intensity of her team.
“I didn’t feel like we were being tough enough, aggressive enough, defensively, in that first half,” Adeduntan said afterward. “We were allowing them to do whatever they wanted. We had to turn up the pressure and get them out of their rhythm. We are a defensive-minded team and what we did in the second half was us.”
In the locker room at halftime, Taylor told his troops the game was far from over, that Colgate was a veteran team that would make a run.
Sure enough, Colgate set the tone in the third quarter by harassing Navy into 3-for16 shooting and outscoring the visitors 17-6 to get right back into the game. The Mids were unable to stem the momentum and saw the lead completely evaporate in the fourth quarter.
Navy managed to maintain a slim lead midway through the fourth before giving it up for good. Another 3-pointer by Streiff gave Colgate a 55-53 lead at the 4:57 mark and the home team held on to it the rest of the way.
Taylor cited subpar defensive rebounding and fouling as the culprits in the second half. Colgate made 21 free throws and scored 12 secondchance points after intermission.
“We didn’t do a good enough job of boxing out in the second half. I thought we defended them pretty well. We just couldn’t finish the possession. We gave up 11 offensive rebounds and that came back to bite us,” Taylor said.
After scoring 24 points in the first quarter and 20 in the second stanza, Navy managed only 20 points in the entire second half.
“We had the exact same shots we had in the first half and didn’t make them. We missed some easy layups and some point-blank shots,” Taylor said.
Navy graduates three seniors in Watts, Morganne Andrews and Sam Schofield. The Mids return all five starters in freshmen Barnett-Gay and Smith, along with sophomores Maren Louridas, Toni Papahronis and Kate Samson.
Samson, a 6-foot-4 center, made tremendous improvement this season and should be even more of an inside force next season. Papahronis played the entire season wearing a bulky leg brace after suffering a torn ACL in the first game of her freshman campaign. Taylor expects the multi-talented wing to be completely recovered and able to play without a brace in 2024-25.
Navy will not have any seniors next season with the roster consisting of seven juniors, five sophomores and four incoming plebes. Taylor was also pleased with the progress made by the likes of sophomore forward Gia Pissott along with freshmen Libby Holder and Violet McNece.
“We’ve got a ton of talent coming back and are adding a tremendous recruiting class,” Taylor said. “I think the future is really, really bright and we expect to be playing for Patriot League championships for many years to come.”
Riding the bus home from upstate New York on Tuesday morning, Taylor was already anxious to begin individual workouts along with strength and conditioning training.