Army Black Knights Defeat Navy Midshipmen in Women’s Basketball Showdown

The Army West Point Black Knights women’s basketball team tightened the Patriot League conference race by taking their arch-rival, the Navy Midshipmen, at home, 59-49, on Sunday at Christl Arena.

Navy (14-4, 6-2 in Patriot) entered the game having already matched last season’s win total and hoping to reach 15 wins for the first time since winning 25 games in the 2017-18 season. The Midshipmen were also in second place by themselves in the Patriot, behind both Lehigh and Holy Cross.

Instead, Army (14-4, 6-2) drew into a tie for second place with its arch-rival and extended Navy’s losing streak at West Point to five games. Army also boosted its lead in the all-time series to 44-40, dating back to 1981, and has won the last six meetings overall.

Army has won three of its last four games. Navy has lost two of its last four after a 4-0 start to Patriot League action.

It was the Black Knights’ game from the jump, as they took a 21-12 first-quarter lead and never relinquished it.

Navy had the lead briefly, taking a 5-4 lead with 6:23 left in the first quarter on a jumper by Midshipmen star Zanai Barnett-Gay. After that, the Black Knights scored the next nine points, boosted by a 3-pointer by Reese Ericson, to take a 13-5 lead with 3:27 left.

After that, Army outscored Navy, 8-7, as Brooke Wilson and Fiona Hastick connected on 3-pointers for the Black Knights while Barnett-Gay scored five points during the run, including a 3-pointer.

The Black Knights maintained the lead the rest of the game. The Midshipmen’s best shot to inject some drama in the game came with 1:52 left as Mary Gibbons made a lay-up to cut Army’s lead to 53-47. But the Black Knights answered immediately with a 3-pointer by Ericson to push the lead back to three possessions.

Kya Smith led Army with 14 points and 15 rebounds for a double-double. Camryn Tade only scored six points, but she had 10 rebounds. Trinity Hardy scored 13 points, Hastick scored 11 and Ericson added 10 points.

Barnett-Gay had 15 points for Navy, along with Julianna Almeida.

Army and Navy will meet again on Feb. 15.

Army travels to Colgate on Wednesday at 5 p.m. eastern and hosts American on Saturday at noon. Navy hosts Lehigh at 6 p.m. on Wednesday and then travels to Bucknell at 3 p.m. on Saturday.