The Holy Cross women’s basketball team is set to host Navy at the Hart Center Arena on Wednesday, January 21, with tip-off scheduled for 6 p.m. The game will be available for viewing on ESPN+.
Senior point guard Kaitlyn Flanagan recently entered the Patriot League’s top 10 in career assists during last week’s game against Army. Fans can purchase tickets for $5 until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday.
Wednesday’s event will serve as both the team’s Mental Health Awareness game, held in partnership with Morgan’s Message, and Faculty/Staff Appreciation night.
Holy Cross currently holds a record of 10-7 overall and 4-2 in the Patriot League. In their most recent outing, they defeated Lafayette 70-48 after scoring a season-high 29 points in the fourth quarter. Junior Kendall Eddy led with 15 points, while seniors Mary-Elizabeth Donnelly and Simone Foreman contributed 12 and 11 points respectively. Flanagan added eight points, six assists, and four rebounds.
The Crusaders’ performance included shooting a season-best 47.4% from three-point range. Eddy has made at least three three-pointers in four of her last seven games and has converted nearly half of her attempts from beyond the arc during that period.
Defensively, Holy Cross has limited opponents to under 60 points in eight of its last nine games since December 7. Flanagan enters Wednesday’s matchup with a total of 477 career assists and ranks second this season in the league with an average of 4.1 assists per game.
Navy comes into the contest with a record of 10-6 overall and leads the Patriot League at 5-1 following a forfeit win over Lehigh when their opponent was unable to play as scheduled. In their previous played game, Navy defeated American University by a score of 86-68 on January 14. Four Midshipmen scored in double figures; Zanai Barnett-Gay recorded team highs with 24 points, eight rebounds, and six assists.
Barnett-Gay leads both Navy and the conference in scoring (17.7 points per game), assists (4.3 per game), steals (2.6 per game), and is also Navy’s leading rebounder at an average of 8.2 per contest. Teammates Zoe Mesuch (12.4 ppg) and Julianna Almeida (10.4 ppg) also contribute double-digit scoring averages as Navy brings the league’s highest-scoring offense at just over seventy-two points per game.
In their previous meeting earlier this month on January 3 in Annapolis, Holy Cross secured a win over Navy by breaking open a tied fourth quarter with an extended run to finish ahead by eleven points; senior Meg Cahalan scored twenty-two while Eddy posted a career-high twenty-one points.
Since first facing each other in 1992, Holy Cross holds an all-time series lead over Navy at fifty-one wins to twenty-six losses.
