Mids fall apart on offense in quarterfinal loss
Navy men’s basketball players waiting in frustration to sing Blue and Gold as the American pep band loudly played the school’s fight song was the unhappy scene at Alumni Hall after Thursday night’s Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal.
A disastrous finish to the first half and a poor performance offensively for the final 26 ½ minutes doomed the Midshipmen to a disappointing upset.
Junior forward Matt Rogers scored 17 points on 8-for-11 shooting as No. 7 seed American stunned second-seeded Navy, 52-51, before an announced crowd of 986 at Alumni Hall.
Junior forward Johnny O’Neill had a big game with 15 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots for American (17-14), which will play at No. 6 seed Lafayette in Sunday’s semifinals. Junior guard Lorenzo Donadio contributed nine points and seven rebounds for the Eagles, who closed the first half with an 18-2 run that totally turned the tide.
Senior forward Daniel Deaver scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Navy (18-13), which watched a double-digit lead evaporate over the final 6 ½ minutes of the first half. Senior guard Sean Yoder made three 3-pointers in netting nine points for the Midshipmen, who shot 37% from the field for the game.
“I’m really disappointed for our kids, disappointed for our seniors,” Navy coach Ed DeChellis said. “We played one of the worst games we’ve played all season offensively and that was really, really frustrating. We just couldn’t make a basket.”
The Eagles took their largest lead of the game on a 3-pointer by O’Neill that made it 40-32 at the 15:27 mark of the second half. American then went into a funk offensively and gave Navy every chance to come back, but the home team just could not make shots.
The Mids went 6 ½ minutes without scoring a point between made layups by Deaver at the 11:45 and 5:05 marks. It was Navy’s second-longest scoring drought of the season.
American only scored 19 points in the second half, but Navy did not take advantage. The Mids shot 35% from the field in the second half after shooting 39% in the first half.
“We were trying too hard to make a basket. Every possession it was like the ball was going to explode,” DeChellis said. “We missed some easy shots, we couldn’t make a perimeter shot. We tried to drive it some and got our shots blocked inside.”
Senior forward Tyler Nelson, a third team All-Patriot League pick, was limited to eight points on 3-for-11 shooting. Starting swingman
Patrick Dorsey was held scoreless on 0-for-4 shooting. Starting point guard Austin Inge also did not have a point.
“It was just a total breakdown offensively. We picked a bad night to not shoot the ball well,” DeChellis said.
It appeared American had put the game away after graduate student forward Connor Nelson drained a 3-pointer with time running down on the shot clock. That gave the Eagles a 52-46 advantage with 53 seconds to go.
Navy resorted to fouling and American missed the front end of three straight one-and-one opportunities. Deaver drove the lane for a dunk to make it 52-48, then hit a 3-pointer to get the Mids within one.
Sophomore point guard Elijah Stephens missed a free throw with 17.5 seconds left and Navy called timeout to set up a play for what it hoped would be the go-ahead basket.
Freshman point guard Austin Benigni caught the inbounds pass then tried to dish to Yoder to initiate the play. However, Yoder was well defended and American knocked the ball loose and into the backcourt.
Navy guard Christian Jones (Annapolis) recovered the loose ball with three seconds left, but his desperation heave from well beyond midcourt sailed over the basket and out of bounds.
“I give our kids credit. We fought back and gave ourselves a chance,” DeChellis said. “We had a sideline out-of-bounds play and it never materialized. We didn’t even get to the play. That was the story of the game. Nothing was crisp, nothing was sharp.”
Rogers scored 11 points on 5-for-7 field goal shooting as American took a 33-27 halftime lead. Donadio had nine points at the break intermission for the Eagles, who shot a sizzling 65% (13-for-20) from the field and*
scored 20 points in the paint.
Nelson and Deavers combined for 15 points to lead Navy, which went cold in the last 10 minutes and wound up shooting 39% (11-28). Yoder swished a 3-pointer to give the Mids their largest lead (20-9) at the 10:36 mark of the first half.
Navy still led by 10 with 6:36 to go, but American dominated the rest of the way and outscored the home team 18-2 over the final six minutes. O’Neill drained a 3-pointer with 2:24 to give the Eagles a 28-27 lead, and they never trailed the rest of the way.
DeChellis said American’s 18-2 run to close the first half changed the whole complexion of the contest.
“We were playing pretty good and then at the seven-minute mark we went brain dead,” he said. “We threw the ball away and couldn’t make a shot. We weren’t defending them. We lost focus and that’s the game.”