Courtesy of NavySports.com
BALTIMORE, Md. – The Navy men’s basketball team (7-10, 2-3 PL) earned its first road win of the 2016-17 season with a 75-62 victory at Loyola (8-8, 2-3 PL) on Wednesday evening at Reitz Arena.
“I thought we played our best game from start to finish tonight,” said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis. “I’m really proud of our kids. I thought they played hard and battled. We haven’t won on the road yet so it was really important for us to come out here and play well tonight.”
Junior guard Shawn Anderson scored 15 points with seven rebounds, five assists and two steals, while junior guard Bryce Dulin tallied 14 points and seven rebounds. Anderson was 5-of-5 from the free throw line and Dulin was 4-of-4.
Sophomore forward George Kiernan chipped in with 11 points off the bench and made three 3-pointers.
After trailing 2-0, Navy went on a 7-0 run to take a lead it would not relinquish. Junior forward Tom Lacey and Anderson scored after offensive rebounds and Dulin knocked down a 3-pointer. Sophomore guard Hasan Abdullah would later knock down a jumper followed by a steal and a dish to sophomore Ryan Pearson for a layup and a 15-6 lead at the 12:42 mark of the first half.
Jarred Jones helped get Loyola back in the game with 10 first-half points, but the Mids were able to pull ahead again after five points from sophomore guard Nourse Fox and a layup by senior center Edward Alade. Two 3-pointers from Dulin and Kiernan then pushed Navy ahead by 10 points at 30-20. Loyola cut the margin in half, but senior guard Tim Abruzzo sunk two 3-pointers in the final three-and-a-half minutes as Navy carried a 36-28 lead into halftime.
Navy opened the second half on a 6-1 run to pull ahead by 13 points as Lacey opened the half on a layup and then a steal by Abdullah led to a fastbreak layup for Anderson. Loyola would cut the lead to seven, but Kiernan made two 3-pointers in a span of 3:09 and Anderson converted a three-point play to keep Navy’s lead in the double-digits.
Loyola used a 6-0 run midway through the second half to cut Navy’s lead to seven points, but Dulin made two free throws and then a steal by Dulin led to a layup by Lacey. Critical buckets inside by Alade and Kiernan, followed by a driving layup by Anderson and a fastbreak dunk by Dulin helped hold off a Greyhound comeback. Pearson then made 3-of-4 free throws in the final 70 seconds to seal the 75-62 win.
Abdullah finished the night with four points, four assists and four steals. Pearson scored seven points and Alade posted six points and four rebounds.
Navy shot 51 percent in the game (27-of-53) and matched its season-high of nine steals.
Jones scored a game-high 17 points for Loyola and Andre Walker added 12.
After starting the Patriot League season at 0-3, Navy has won back-to-back games and has a chance to move to 3-3 in league play at Lafayette (6-10, 2-3 PL) on Saturday at 2:00 PM.
“We got out to a tough start in the league and now we have won two in a row,” said DeChellis. “This was a huge game for us to come and get. Fortunately, we have played pretty well here (in Reitz Arena).”
Navy won its fifth straight game against Loyola and its third straight at Reitz Arena.
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