Army Defeats NJIT, Advances to Super 16 of WNIT

WEST POINT – 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 25th 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 14th 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.

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.