Courtesy of NavySports.com
HIGH POINT, N.C. – Navy junior guard Shawn Anderson scored a game-high 19 points and grabbed six rebounds, but the Mids (1-4) fell to UNCG (3-2), 72-59, in the final game of the HPU Tournament on Sunday in High Point’s Millis Center. Navy went 0-3 at the HPU Tournament this weekend.
Anderson shot 7-of-8 from the free throw line and was 6-of-11 from the field for his season-high total of 19 points. Junior guard Bryce Dulin chipped in with 11 points off the bench and became the eighth Mid to score in double figures in Navy’s first five games of the 2016-17 season.
UNCG reeled off a 13-0 run in a three-minute span to turn an early 6-6 tie to a 19-6 advantage on the strength of two 3-pointers by Demetrius Troy and another trey by Marvin Smith. Navy’s Zach Fong stopped the run with a floater, but UNCG once again pulled ahead to take a 14-point lead at 24-10 after an R.J White and-one dunk.
Navy rallied with an 8-0 run keyed by a 3-pointer by sophomore forward George Kiernan to get back into the game. Late in the first half, Kiernan sunk another 3-pointer and a layup by Anderson cut the deficit to just four at 30-26. However, UNCG’s Diante Baldwin made a long two-point jumper at the first-half buzzer to send UNCG to the locker room up six.
UNCG used a 7-0 run on five straight points by Malik Massey to push its lead to 17 points midway through the second half, but Dulin knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to allow Navy to hang around.
The Spartans then put together an 11-2 to build its largest lead of the game at 21 points (68-47) with 5:15 remaining. Anderson continued to knock down free throws and reserves Mo Lewis, James Butler and Grant Vermeer scored in the final two minutes to allow Navy to cut the final margin to 13 points at 72-59.
Navy sophomore point guard Hasan Abdullah tallied four points, four assists, three rebounds and a career-high six steals. It was the most steals by a Navy player since J.J. Avila had six during the 2011-12 season.
Anderson scored in double figures for a career-best 12th straight game. Kiernan finished with eight points, one day after scoring a career-high 11 against High Point on Saturday.
Troy scored a team-high 15 points for UNCG, while Baldwin had 13 and White added 11. The Spartans shot 59 percent from the floor (31-of-53), while Navy shot 44 percent (21-of-48).
“I didn’t think we played very well tonight and we were running uphill the whole game,” said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis. “Greensboro has some big guys and they got it inside on us. They drove right by us and they also shot the ball well. We had no answers for them defensively.”
UNCG outscored Navy in the paint, 36-26.
Navy shot just 26 percent on its 3-pointers in the contest (5-of-19) and the Mids missed their first nine 3-point attempts of the game before Kiernan came off the bench and connected on two triples.
Navy shot a season-high 86 percent from the free throw line on Sunday (12-of-14).
After playing three games at High Point in the last three days, Navy will return home to host UMBC on Wednesday at 7:00 PM in Alumni Hall.
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