Courtesy of Navy Athletic Communications

DANBURY, Conn. - The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) recently announced its year-end awards and Zanai Barnett-Gay was at the forefront of the press release as the 2023-24 ECAC Rookie of the Year. Also named to the All-ECAC First Team, Barnett-Gay was recognized for her record-setting debut season with the Navy women's basketball program. This regional honor adds to Barnett-Gay's postseason haul of awards as she was the Patriot League Rookie of the Year, in addition to being named to the All-Patriot League First Team, All-PL Defensive Team and All-PL Rookie Team.

The remainder of the 2023-24 ECAC major award winners were Caitlin Weimar of Boston University, who was the Player of the Year and Fairfield's Carly Thibault-DuDonis, who was the ECAC Coach of the Year. Barnett-Gay and Weimar were joined on the All-ECAC First Team by Meghan Anderson (Fr., Fairfield), Dyaisha Fair (Gr., Syracuse), Gigi Gonzalez (Gr., Stony Brook) and Elisa Mevius (So., Siena)

The ballot for All-ECAC consisted of players from the East Coast and schools that compete in the AAC, America East, Atlantic 10, Big East, Big Ten, CAA, Ivy League, MAAC, MEAC, NEC and Patriot League conferences.

A starter with Navy from day one of the 2023-24 season, Barnett-Gay was a force from the start and kept up her breakneck play throughout her rookie campaign. Appearing in and starting 30 games for the Mids, the guard posted a 18.2 points per game scoring average to go along with 6.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game marks. Registering 546 total points, Barnett-Gay shattered the previous program record for points by a freshman by 132 (Colleen Cassidy, 414 pts in 1978-79) and finished second all-time in the program's single-season scoring list behind Jennifer Coleman's 689 in 2021-22. Nationally, the Glenn Dale, Maryland native finished 54th amongst all NCAA D-I scorers and fifth in the freshmen-only category behind JuJu Watkins of USC (27.1 ppg), Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame (22.6 ppg), Raegan McCowan of Western Illinois (19.4 ppg) and Audi Crooks of Iowa State (19.2 ppg). A consistent scorer, Barnett-Gay has led the Mids in scoring in 22 different games and tallied double-digits in all 30 games with 12 appearances going for 20 or more points, including a career-best 29 versus Binghamton on Nov. 21. She was the first Patriot League Rookie of the Year for Navy since Jade Geif in 2011 and sixth in program history.

Strong on the defensive end, as well, Barnett-Gay ranked 12th nationally with 3.0 steals per game. She's swiped at least one steal in 28 of her 30 games with a season-high of six coming against Wagner on Nov. 30 and five more coming in five other games, including against Army in the regular season and Lafayette in the Patriot League Tournament. In March, Barnett-Gay became the seventh Midshipmen in program history to earn a spot on the All-PL Defensive Team.

For her all-around game, Barnett-Gay became the first-ever Navy freshman player to garner an All-Patriot League First Team spot. Besides leading the conference in steals, she finished the year ranked second in scoring average, seventh in assists and eighth in rebounds over 34.6 minutes per game (third in PL). Barnett-Gay's consistency was rewarded with a conference-high seven Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors, including a pair of combined sweeps of the Player and Rookie of the Week awards. Her seven honors set a new Navy single-season program record and ranked second all-time in the history of the Patriot League.

2023-24 Women's Basketball All-ECAC Teams and Major Awards
Player of the Year: Caitlin Weimar, Boston University, Sr., F
Rookie of the Year: Zanai Barnett-Gay, Navy, Fr., G
Coach of the Year: Carly Thibault-DuDonis, Fairfield

All-ECAC First Team
Caitlin Weimar – Boston University, Sr., F
Meghan Andersen – Fairfield University, Fr., F
Gigi Gonzalez – Stony Brook University, Gr., G
Elisa Mevius – Siena College, So., G
Dyaisha Fair – Syracuse University, 5th Year., G
Zanai Barnett-Gay – Navy, Fr., G

All-ECAC Second Team
Lex Therien – Loyola University Maryland, Jr., F
Bronagh Power-Cassidy – College of Holy Cross, Sr., G
Kylie Kornegay-Lucas – Towson University, Rs-Sr., G
Maggie Doogan – Richmond University, So., F
Sisi Eleko – Canisius University, So., F
Janelle Brown – Fairfield University, Sr., G