Army Women, Navy Men Win In Hoops Doubleheader SplitBy John ChuhranCaMMVets Media1-27-2025
West Point, N.Y. – Many things can be taught; skills, strategy, and discipline are a few that come readily to mind. But some important things cannot be learned; either you have them or you don’t.
In Saturday’s Army-Navy basketball double header, one of the things that cannot be taught proved to be the determining factor in both games. You cannot teach “big” – either you are or you aren’t. In both contests at West Pont’s Christl Arena, the big player in the middle proved to be the decisive factor.
In the opener, the Army Women’s team (14-4, 6-2 in the Patriot League) won the opening tip and went down court. But the excitement fueled by a large and vocal crowd of 4,609 fans seemed to encourage a hurried pace of play with numerous rushed and low percentage shots. Indeed, Army got the first points of the game on a second-chance tip-in from Kaya Smith.
It was appropriate that Smith, a 6-foot-1 sophomore power forward, was the one to give Army the lead. She was the dominant force against Navy, draining 5 of 10 shots from the field while finishing with team highs of 14 points, 15 rebounds , and two blocks. Her big presence in the paint proved to be the difference in stopping Navy from getting many close scoring attempts and in helping Army maintain possession after Black Knights. The native of Lubbock, Texas burst into prominence six games ago with a team-leading 16-point, 15-rebound performance in a 70-55 win at Loyola of Maryland and she has been a solid contributor ever since.
Intense defensive pressure from the Black Knights resulted in some hurried, poor Navy decision making, and Army led 34-26 at intermission. In the final 20 minutes, the Army lead fluctuated slightly, but ultimately the Black Knights claimed a 59-49 victory. Senior Trinity Hardy, the team leader in points scored (247), free throws (50) and scoring average (13.7 points per game) scored 13 points, Fiona Hastick added 11, and Reese Ericson provided 10. Camryn Tade pulled down 10 rebounds and scored 6.
West Point, N.Y. – Many things can be taught; skills, strategy, and discipline are a few that come readily to mind. But some important things cannot be learned; either you have them or you don’t.
In Saturday’s Army-Navy basketball double header, one of the things that cannot be taught proved to be the determining factor in both games. You cannot teach “big” – either you are or you aren’t. In both contests at West Pont’s Christl Arena, the big player in the middle proved to be the decisive factor.
In the opener, the Army Women’s team (14-4, 6-2 in the Patriot League) won the opening tip and went down court. But the excitement fueled by a large and vocal crowd of 4,609 fans seemed to encourage a hurried pace of play with numerous rushed and low percentage shots. Indeed, Army got the first points of the game on a second-chance tip-in from Kaya Smith.
It was appropriate that Smith, a 6-foot-1 sophomore power forward, was the one to give Army the lead. She was the dominant force against Navy, draining 5 of 10 shots from the field while finishing with team highs of 14 points, 15 rebounds , and two blocks. Her big presence in the paint proved to be the difference in stopping Navy from getting many close scoring attempts and in helping Army maintain possession after Black Knights. The native of Lubbock, Texas burst into prominence six games ago with a team-leading 16-point, 15-rebound performance in a 70-55 win at Loyola of Maryland and she has been a solid contributor ever since.
Intense defensive pressure from the Black Knights resulted in some hurried, poor Navy decision making, and Army led 34-26 at intermission. In the final 20 minutes, the Army lead fluctuated slightly, but ultimately the Black Knights claimed a 59-49 victory. Senior Trinity Hardy, the team leader in points scored (247), free throws (50) and scoring average (13.7 points per game) scored 13 points, Fiona Hastick added 11, and Reese Ericson provided 10. Camryn Tade pulled down 10 rebounds and scored 6.
Navy was led by Juliana Almeida and Zanai Barnett-Gay who both scored 15. No other player for Navy scored more than 6 points.In the second game, the Navy Men’s team (7-14, 4-4) came out on top in a 66-53 battle with Army (11-9, 5-3). The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Black Knights. After Army took a 4-0 lead, Navy used its big men to control the inside and dominate rebounding (57 to 35); 19 came on the offensive end and 11 were converted into points by the Midshipmen. Aidan Kehoe, Navy’s 6-foot-10 junior center, grabbed 20 rebounds – a new record for an Army-Navy contest – and added 13 points.The first four-and-a-half minutes were close fought as Army held a 9-8 lead, but then the Midshipmen took control with 14-5 run over the following 10 minutes. Army fought hard and chipped away to even the score at 36-36 with 9:37 left in the game as Isaiah Caldwell nailed a jumper. Thirty seconds later, Midshipman Jordan Pennick sank a three-pointer from the left side to launch a 9-0 Navy run (consisting of a three pointer from Jinwoo Kim and another by Pennick) as Army shooting turned cold. Pennick finished with a career-high 20 points with strong support from Austin Benigni (18) and Kehoe.Army leaders were Josh Scoven (12 points), Ryan Curry (11), A.J. Allenspach (9) and Jorn Everson (9 off the bench). Noticeable for his near-total absence from statistics was Army’s Jaden Rucker, who entered the game as team leader in scoring average (19.1 ppg), forced turnovers (45) and steals (31)). Scoring more than 20 points in a trio of games, he was held out of the immediately preceding game to help the healing of lingering injuries. Rucker could never find a consistent scoring touch against Navy and finished with just 5 points.(-CaMMVets Media-)