Courtesy of NavySports.com
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy men’s basketball team (10-5, 1-1 PL) held off Holy Cross (6-7, 1-1 PL) for a 65-60 win in its Patriot League home opener on Saturday afternoon in front of 2,677 fans at Alumni Hall.
“This was a must-win game for us,” said head coach Ed DeChellis. “After losing at Bucknell and then having two on the road coming up, this was a game we had to get.”
Navy held a slight lead for most of the second half and then held off a late Holy Cross rally in the final seconds to clinch its 10th win of the season.
“I thought defensively we were pretty good today,” said DeChellis. “I thought we rebounded the ball and we took care of the ball. Tom Lacey was unbelievable on the glass. I am proud of our kids. Holy Cross is a good team”
Sophomore guard Shawn Anderson scored a team-high 16 points with five rebounds and three assists in a career-high 35 minutes and senior guard Tilman Dunbar tallied 11 points, four rebounds and three assists.
Junior guard Tim Abruzzo and sophomore forward Tom Lacey each had nine points and six rebounds with Lacey grabbing three offensive boards. Senior center Will Kelly had six points, five rebounds and four blocked shots.
Junior guard Robert Champion scored 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Holy Cross, with 10 of his 20 points coming in the final two minutes of the game. Freshman forward Karl Charles scored 16 points with five rebounds.
After Holy Cross opened the game with a 7-1 lead, the Mids reeled off a 13-2 run to go ahead 14-9 with 13 minutes to play in the first half. Kelly scored inside then a steal and fastbreak layup by Anderson kept the rally going. Anderson and sophomore Jace Hogan scored on back-to-back possessions to further extend Navy’s lead.
Another bucket by Hogan put the Mids ahead 16-12 with 10:49 left in the first, but the Mids went on a drought of seven minutes without a field goal until junior guard Zach Fong connected on a 3-pointer.
However, Navy’s defense stringed together enough stops that Fong’s 3-pointer gave Navy a 20-18 lead late in the first half.
Anderson and Holy Cross’ Anthony Thompson traded late buckets, but Anderson dished to junior center Edward Alade for a two-handed dunk at the end of the half to put the Mids ahead 24-22 at intermission.
Holy Cross outscored Navy, 9-6, in the opening four minutes of the second half to take a 31-30 lead, but the Mids got a jumper from Abruzzo, a bucket from Lacey and then a 3-pointer by Abruzzo on three straight possessions to take control of the game at 37-31 and the Mids would lead the rest of the way.
Holy Cross quickly cut the lead to three, but Alade finished a dunk off a feed from Abruzzo and then Anderson scored on a one-handed driving layup to put the Mids up eight at 44-36 to prompt a Crusader timeout.
With a little over two minutes to go, Dunbar hit a step-back jumper to give Navy a nine-point lead at 57-48 but Champion answered right back with a 3-pointer. Holy Cross cut the margin to four before Hogan saved an offensive rebound by throwing the ball to Abruzzo before falling out of bounds and then Dunbar was fouled and made two free throws for a key possession in the game.
Anderson made three of his next four free throw attempts to put the hosts up eight, but Champion hit another 3-pointer with 11 seconds left. Fong made one of two from the line and then another triple from Champion with four seconds cut the margin to just three points at 63-60.
Abruzzo was fouled with 3.2 seconds left and he converted both free throws to seal the 65-60 win.
Navy shot 67 percent from the free throw line in the game (18-of-27), but was clutch late in going 10-of-12 from the stripe in the final four minutes.
Navy shot 42 percent in the game (22-of-52) and Holy Cross shot 39 percent (19-of-49). The Mids outrebounded Holy Cross, 43-27, with the Mids pulling down 15 offensive rebounds.
After losing nine straight games in the series, Navy has now won back-to-back games against the Crusaders.
Navy will next play at Boston U. on Wednesday and then at Colgate on Saturday.
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