EMMITSBURG, Md. — Mount St. Mary’s jumped out to a 14-point halftime lead, then held off a Navy rally in the second half to hand the Midshipmen a 72-65 setback in men’s basketball action Friday night at Knott Arena.
The loss drops Navy to 5-6 overall, while Mount St. Mary’s improved to 4-3.
The Mount made nine three-pointers in the first half in sprinting out to a 45-31 halftime lead. It would extend the lead to 50-33 just two minutes into the second half when the Mids started to chip away, before falling short.
“We just dug ourselves too deep a hole in the first half, and didn’t play defense the way we needed to. We battled back and gave ourselves a chance late, but we had a couple untimely turnovers and missed free throws,” said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis. “Our kids fought and gave ourselves a chance to win, and I liked our effort and fight in the second half. We just seemed flat early on and it was tough to come back from that.”
Navy trailed essentially the entire game and Mount St. Mary’s took its largest lead of the game at 50-33 with 17:51 to play when the Midshipmen started to rally. Navy embarked on a quick 7-0 spurt to cut the lead to 50-40 with 15:41 to play on a Tilman Dunbar (Fr. / Woodbridge, Va.) lay-up.
Mount would still lead 57-43 when Navy used another 15-3 spurt over eight minutes to trim the margin to 60-58 onKendall Knorr’s (Fr. / Concord, N.C.) fourth three-pointer of the night with 4:45 to play.
But Mount St. Mary’s used a 9-0 run with a pair of three-pointers just 27 seconds apart to push the lead back to 69-58 with 1:07 to play. Navy cut the margin to 70-65 on a James Loupos (Jr. / Skillman, N.J.) three-pointer with 18 seconds left, but Josh Castellanos made a pair of free throws on the next possession and Navy would get no closer, falling 72-65.
Navy fell behind quickly as Rashad Whack made three three-pointers in the game’s first two minutes to give Mount a 9-2 lead. The Mids would trim the cushion to one at 21-20 with 9:22 to play, but the Mount went on a 22-8 spurt for a 43-28 lead before settling in for a 45-31 halftime advantage.
Navy would shoot a 25-of-43 (.581) from the field, including 14-of-21 (.667) in the second half, 7-of-12 (.583) from three-point range, but were plagued by going 8-of-17 (.471) from the free throw line and committing 15 turnovers. Navy did outrebound the Mount, 29-24.
Over the last two games, Navy is shooting 57-of-99 (.576) from the field.
Mount St. Mary’s shot 24-of-57 (.421) from the field, 13-of-35 (.371) from three-point range and 11-of-14 (.786) from the free throw line while committing just six turnovers. Mount score 22 points off Navy’s 15 turnovers and used 10 offensive rebounds to score 14 second-chance points.
Dunbar had another strong game, pacing the Midshipmen with 18 points and five assists. Knorr would add 14 points and a career-high five rebounds in 30 minutes of action. Loupos had his best game of the season with 11 points and three rebounds while Worth Smith (So. / Mooresville, N.C.) tallied 10 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots in a fine all-around effort.
Whack led Mount St. Mary’s with 18 points, all coming on six three-pointers.
The 35 three-point attempts tied for the most by an opponent against Navy in school history.
Navy returns home to close out its pre-exam schedule with a Monday night contest against Bryant, beginning at 7:00 PM (ET) in Alumni Hall in Annapolis.
# GO NAVY #
Leave a Reply