Women’s Basketball Defeats NJIT, Advances to Super 16 of WNIT

Sunday, March 22

West Point, N.Y.

2 p.m.

Army West Point

25-7,14-4Patriot

NJIT

19-13,9-7America East

NJIT

Army West Point

Women’s Basketball Defeats NJIT, Advances to Super 16 of WNIT

March 22, 2026 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army West Point women's basketball team put together its biggest comeback of the season to defeat NJIT, 59-52, in the Second Round of the WNIT on Sunday afternoon at Christl Arena.

The win marked Army's second Division I postseason win – WNIT First Round 2025 – and its first home postseason win since 1984 in the NCAA Division II East Region Championship. For head coach Katie Kuester, the victory marked her 25^th of the season, setting a program record for the most wins in a first season by an Army head coach.

Army (25-7) had a rough opening quarter and found itself down by 15 early in the second but staged a massive comeback in the final two quarters to advance to the Super 16 for the first time in program history. Sunday was Army's largest come-from-behind win this year. It's previous was 14 at home against Boston U.

Like many times this season, it was the Kya Smith show inside Christl Arena, as she had a game-high 21 points and 17 rebounds for her fourth consecutive double-double and 14^th of the season. She was almost all of Army's offense in the first half, scoring 13 of the Black Knights' 24 points.

Ultimately, it was Army's defense that was the deciding factor in the victory. Despite having an impressive first quarter, the Highlanders finished the game shooting 37.5 percent from
the field.

How it Happened
NJIT opened the scoring, but Army followed with a 7-0 run to take an early command of the game. With 5:46 left in the opening quarter, Army led 13-7 but it would not score again until the 8:37 mark in the second quarter. Over that stretch, NJIT went on a 21-0 run and led 28-13. The Highlanders were 10-13 from the field 4-4 from three in the opening 10 minutes.

Army was able to cut the deficit down to eight with 4:41 before half thanks to a Smith jumper. However, it would go into the break trailing 35-24. Through the first 31 games of the season, Army had not won a game in which it trailed by more than six at halftime.

At half, Army was 9-37 (24.3 percent) from the field and was struggling to slow down NJIT, who was shooting 59.1 percent.

Things slowly started to turn in favor of Army in the third quarter, as it outscored NJIT 17-10 in the period. Camryn Tade and Smith scored back-to-back baskets to open the second half and Army soon found itself down by seven. However, NJIT built that lead back up to 11.

Just before the media timeout, Smith and Reese Ericson scored for Army to help bring the deficit back down to seven with less than four minutes to play before the fourth.

Army closed the third frame on a 5-0 run that included three points from Tade and a basket by Reganne Reardon, making the NJIT lead 45-41 going into the final 10 minutes of action.

The fourth quarter was when Army's defense shined. NJIT was held scoreless over the first 4:23 of the period, allowing the Black Knights to go on a 7-0 run to take its first lead – 47-45 – since the opening quarter. During the run, Reardon had four points, while Tade had two. Army would not trail the rest of the game.

NJIT was able to even things up at 49-49 but Smith quickly responded to return the lead into Army's favor. Leading 53-52 with 1:01 left to play, Reardon added a massive layup to give Army a 3-point lead. The defense followed with massive stops and Tade and Taylor Wilson made late free-throws to ice the game.

By the Numbers
In addition to Smith's 21 points – her fifth 20-point game of the season – Reardon and Tade played crucial rules in the win. Tade finished the game with 13 points, while Reardon added 12 – 10 in the second half – off the bench. The freshman also played a career-high 29 minutes.

Army finished the game shooting 38.7 percent but that doesn't tell the full story, as the Black Knights shot a blistering 60 percent in the final two periods. In the fourth quarter alone, Army was 7-12.

Brooke Wilson led Army with four assists and drew multiple NJIT offensive fouls.

Defensively, Army held the Highlanders to 37.5 percent shooting. When it mattered the most, the fourth quarter, NJIT was 2-16 from the field and turned it over four times. Taylor Wilson led the way with a game-high three blocks.

Army won the scoring battle in points off turnovers (19-9), points in the paint (38-24), second chance points (8-4), fast break points (8-6) and bench points (14-0).
The Black Knights won the rebounding battle 40-31, which included 16 offensive boards.

Quotable – Head Coach Katie Kuester
"You know, 10 days off from a game kind of showed. We were a little rusty in the beginning, but I think what I'm so proud of is even when we went down by 15, we never got too down on ourselves. We continued to stay true to who we are. We got big stops when we needed to as the game progressed, and we just chipped away. I told them at halftime, I said, 'We can rewrite this however we want. All right; we need to make a decision collectively.' I thought that we did, and we just scratched and clawed right out of that hole and got it within striking distance when we needed to. So, just so proud of them."

Super 16
For the first time in program history, Army has advanced to the Super 16 of the WNIT and will play the winner of Monday night's game between La Salle and Binghamton. Date, time and location are still to be determined. More information will be available on goarmywestpoint.com in the coming days.

Game 32 Notables
• The win marked Army's second Division I postseason win – WNIT First Round 2025 – and its first home postseason win since 1984 in the NCAA Division II East Region Championship.
• With the win, head coach Katie Kuester reached her 25^th victory of the season, setting a program record for the most wins in a first season by an Army head coach.
• Army has advanced to the Super 16 for the first time in program history.
• The 15-point comeback is the largest by Army this season. Army, who trailed by 11 after two quarters, had not won a game in which it trailed by more than six at halftime this season.
• Kya Smith led the way with her fourth consecutive double-double, registering a game-high in points (21) and rebounds (17). It's her 14^th of the season.
• Also scoring in double-digits was Camryn Tade (13) and Reganne Reardon (12). Reardon had eight of her points in the fourth quarter and played a career-high 29 minutes.
• Taylor Wilson had a game-high three blocks.
• Army is now 4-1 all-time against NJIT.