Courtesy of NavySports.com
WEST POINT, N.Y. – Junior guard Shawn Anderson poured in a career-high 30 points to lead Navy (10-10, 5-3 PL) to a 96-80 overtime win at Army West Point (8-12, 2-6 PL) on Saturday afternoon in Christl Arena. Army rallied from a 10-point deficit with just 42 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime, but the Mids outscored the Black Knights 21-5 in the extra period for their fifth straight win.
“These kids were confident that they could go back out there for five more minutes [in overtime] and get something done,” said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis. “We did everything just about right in overtime. We made our free throws, we made a shot or two and defensively we were better down the stretch. That’s the growth and maturity to a team. We have a great fiber to our team. I can’t say enough about these guys. I’m really proud of them.”
Anderson’s 30 points came on 8-of-19 shooting from the floor and he was 13-of-17 at the free throw line. He also tallied six rebounds, five assists and one steal.
Junior guard Bryce Dulin posted his first double-double with 21 points and a career-best 17 rebounds. Dulin had 11 rebounds in the second half alone. Sophomore point guard Hasan Abdullah, in his first Army-Navy game, scored 21 points with three rebounds, three assists and two steals before fouling out with 80 seconds left in the overtime period.
After a free throw by Duiln with 42 seconds left in the second half put Navy ahead by 10 at 70-60, Army’s John Emezie converted a three-point play. Anderson followed with two made free throws before another Emezie layup. Anderson then made another pair of free throws, but Army responded right back with a 3-pointer by Kennedy Edwards to cut the margin to six points.
Navy turned the ball over on its next possession and another Edwards 3-pointer cut the margin to three. Navy then turned the ball over once again. Navy fouled Tommy Funk, who made two free throws with six seconds left to cut the margin to one point. Anderson made one of two free throws with four seconds left before Fox found Funk alone underneath the basket to force overtime at the regulation buzzer.
Army made one free throw to open the overtime period but Navy went on a 7-0 run to take control of the game. Anderson knocked down a jumper and then Dulin found Tom Lacey for a lob pass and a layup that sat on the rim before finally rolling in. Senior guard Tim Abruzzo then stole a pass on the next possession and Abruzzo found Lacey rolling to the basket for an 81-76 lead.
Army continued to miss 3-pointers on its offensive end and kept sending Navy to the free throw line. Navy made 13-of-16 free throws in the overtime period as the margin grew to 16 points at 96-80. The 16-point win margin was the biggest for Navy in an overtime game in program history.
Dulin was 6-of-8 from the free throw line in overtime, while Anderson was 5-of-6 and Abruzzo was 2-of-2.
“Coming into this game, we knew it was going to be a fight to the end,” said Anderson. “It’s a good rivalry. This is the kind of game where you establish an attitude and a fiber and we came out and won the game down the stretch. It wasn’t as pretty as we would have liked, but it’s something to build on moving forward.”
For the game, Navy was 30-of-45 from the free throw line (67 percent) and 30-of-61 from the floor (49 percent). Navy outrebounded Army, 50-43, and held the Black Knights to 23 percent shooting on 3-pointers (5-of-22) in the second half (5-of-16) and overtime period (0-of-6) combined.
Army led for the majority of the first half. Navy missed its first six 3-pointers of the game before Abdullah and sophomore George Kiernan hit a pair late in the first half. Navy cut Army’s lead to three points at 31-28 on a long jumper by Abdullah, but the Black Knights closed the first half on a 6-2 run and benefitted from a last-second layup by Edwards for a 37-30 halftime lead.
Navy had a great start to the second half, coming out of the locker room on a 13-2 run over the opening five minutes. Senior center Edward Alade scored inside and then Abdullah and Anderson sunk 3-pointers on the next two possessions. Alade had a block on the defensive end and Anderson scored two more buckets and a free throw from Abdullah put Navy ahead 43-39.
Army retook the lead with three straight 3-pointers, two from Luke Morrison and then a third by Funk. After Army went ahead at 56-50, a steal by Abdullah led to a Lacey layup, Alade scored inside and Dulin made a free throw. A triple by Abdullah gave Navy the lead again at 58-56 with 4:55 to play and the lead would grow as Dulin, Anderson and then Dulin again would score on three straight possessions. That led to Army sending Navy to the free throw line, which helped the Black Knights rally to force overtime.
Edwards led Army with 20 points and nine rebounds, while Funk scored 16. Morrison finished with 15 points and five rebounds and Mac Hoffman had seven points and 11 rebounds.
Several Navy players, including Anderson and Lacey, were dealing with an illness over the past two days.
“They didn’t say a word about it [to the media] but we had eight guys not practice with the stomach flu the last two days,” said DeChellis. “I thought they played pretty well and had a lot of energy. I think Dr. McDevitt and Adam Pecina, our trainer, deserve a lot of credit for what happened today. They got us back and that was really important.”
Navy will next be on the road for the fourth time in five contests when it plays at American on Wednesday evening.
Postgame Notes
• Navy’s fifth straight conference win puts the team in tie for second place in the Patriot League 5-3. Bucknell stands alone in first place at 7-1.
• Anderson’s 30-point game was the first 30-point game in the Ed DeChellis era (sixth season).
• Navy’s 16-point win margin was the largest in an overtime game in program history.
• Navy’s 96 points scored was the eighth most scored in a road game in school history.
• Anderson, Dulin and Abdullah became the first Navy trio to score at least 20 points in the same game since David Robinson, Vernon Butler and Kylor Whitaker in 1985.
• Navy has won five straight games at Christl Arena and the Class of 2017 is the second straight class to go 4-0 at its rival.
• This was the second straight overtime game in the Army-Navy series.
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