Navy women’s basketball coach Tim Taylor knew he had a talented team returning this season so he purposefully built a challenging nonconference schedule.
Navy is the preseason favorite to capture the Patriot League championship and Taylor wanted his players to face the type of competition they would encounter in the NCAA Tournament.
At the top of the list for tough opponents was Florida, which plays in the powerful Southeastern Conference. The Gators were loaded with returning talent from a team that reached the WNIT semifinals last season.
Standout guard Zanai Barnett-Gay and the rest of the Midshipmen were up to the challenge, playing fearlessly and really took it to the heavily favored Gators from start to finish.
Barnett-Gay scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds as Navy stunned Florida, 69-54, before a boisterous crowd of 825 at Alumni Hall. Sophomore guard Juliana Almeida had a strong all-around game with 12 points, eight assists and seven rebounds for the Midshipmen, who defeated an SEC opponent for only the second time in program history.
Navy has captured Patriot League Tournament championships so it would be hard to call it the biggest win in program history. However, it certainly ranks right up there among the most notable as the Midshipmen are now 4-24 against teams from Power Four conferences.
“Beating an SEC team is a really big deal and it will make our players believe even more,” Taylor said. “We expect to be good this season, which is why we scheduled games like this. It’s a great win, but as Julianna said, this isn’t a championship win. We’re going to show up to practice tomorrow and keep working to get better.”
Barnett-Gay, the preseason Player of the Year in the Patriot League, scored 17 points in the second half when Navy (3-0) led by double digits most of the way.
“We were excited about playing an SEC team, but we tried not to make too big of a deal about it,” Barnett-Gay said. “We know who we are as a team. I think this was a good showcase of what we can do.”
Junior guard Laila Reynolds totaled 19 points, five assists and three steals for Florida (4-1), which shot just 28% (19-for-66) from the field. Sophomore forward Me’Arah O’Neal contributed 14 points and six rebounds for the Gators, who trailed for nearly 34 of 40 minutes.
Florida was without its best player in sophomore guard Liv McGill, a second team preseason All-SEC selection. McGill, who was averaging almost 26 points per game, sat out with a leg injury.
“We knew Navy was going to be a really tough matchup, especially with Liv McGill being out,” Florida coach Kelly Rae Finley said. “Navy is extremely well-coached and very disciplined. They shot the ball really well and were locked in. They had a game plan and were able to execute it at a high level; Tonight, Navy was the better team.”
Freshman guard Zoe Mesuch scored all 15 of her points from beyond the arc as Navy took a 39-31 halftime lead. Almeida totaled seven points and four assists for the Mids, who went on an early 13-0 run to show the Gators they would be no pushover.
“We wanted to come out and sort of show our presence early and we did just that,” Barnett-Gay said.
Mesuch, who Taylor has described as a “phenomenal” shooter, was on fire from beyond the arc in the first half and forced Florida to adjust defensively.
“Zoe opened the game up for us offensively. They had to hug up to her and were stretching the floor, which opened things up for other people,” Taylor said.
Florida answered with a 13-0 run of its own and the score was tied 18-18 after one period. A 3-pointer by Nyadieng Yiech gave the Gators a 29-28 lead with 4:20 remaining in the second quarter, but the Midshipmen closed the half on an 11-2 run to take a 39-31 lead at intermission.
Taylor pointed out that Navy’s strong finish to the first half came with Barnett-Gay on the bench with three fouls. She was replaced in the lineup by another plebe in Christina Liggio.
“Christina played an unbelievable stretch when Z was out,” Taylor said.
Florida no doubt expected to open the second half with a strong run to erase the nine-point deficit and impose its will. Instead, the Gators got outscored 14-6 and fell behind by as much as 18 points.
Barnett-Gay made back-to-back 3-pointers as part of a 14-4 run that gave Navy a commanding 53-35 lead. Florida visibly tightened up during that decisive third period and wound up making just 2 of 15 field goals.
“We noticed the change in their energy and we used that to boost us,” Barnett-Gay said. “We stuck to our game plan and everyone stuck together. We focused on playing team basketball.”
Taylor credited assistant coach Daniel Villarreal with diagramming a defensive game plan that was far different from the way Navy normally plays on that end of the floor. Taylor described it as a matchup zone designed to clog the middle.
That strategy worked with the help of Florida, which repeatedly settled for perimeter shots. The Gators wound up making just 5 of 26 3-pointers for the game.
“We wanted to close the lane on them and make them shoot it from the perimeter and for the most part that’s what we did. I think the numbers speak for themselves,” Barnett-Gay said.
Alumni Hall became louder and more raucous as the game went along and Navy continued to lead by double digits. Everyone in the arena was waiting for Florida to make a sustained push and it never happened.
“They thought they were going to make a run and every time they tried we responded,” Taylor said.
It was a milestone win for the Navy seniors, led by captain Maren Louridas. She and classmates Morgan Demos, Kelly Giulani and Kate Samson were plebes when the Midshipmen finished with a 1-29 record.
“This win means a lot for our seniors and shows how far this program has come,” Taylor said.
Taylor knew going into the season this game would be a stiff test. Florida looked even more formidable come game day, averaging 96 points per game on the way to starting 4-0. The Gators average margin of victory in those games was almost 40 points.
“I told my wife yesterday that I just want to see how we’re going to compete. Are we going to be physical enough, are we going to back down?” Taylor said. “We didn’t back down. We fought the entire game. That’s the type of toughness we’ve been looking for.”
Taylor pulled off somewhat of a coup by getting Florida to come to Annapolis. It marked the first time Navy had hosted an SEC team this century with the last such instance coming in December, 1998 when Mississippi played at Alumni Hall.
The Midshipmen knocked off the Rebels in that contest, which came in the Navy Classic. That is Navy’s lone win in seven previous games against SEC teams.
“Hat’s off to Florida for taking this game. It is hard for mid-majors that are on the rise to get home games against power conference programs,” Taylor said.
This was the first meeting between Navy and Florida since November, 2010 when the schools matched up in the Dead River Company Classic at the University of Maine. Finley agreed to play a road game against Navy because she wanted to give Reynolds, who grew up in Prince George’s County, a homecoming.
“It was really important as a program to give Laila Reynolds the opportunity to come home and play in front of family and friends,” Finley said.
Florida had three McDonald’s All-Americans on the roster in Reynolds, O’Neal and McGill. O’Neal is the daughter of NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal.
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