Mids KO’d by Terriers
The road to reaching the Patriot League championship game can be difficult for a team playing in the first round. Navy men’s basketball was reminded of that fact this week.
After beating Loyola Maryland in a first-round matchup Tuesday night in Annapolis, Navy had very little time to prepare for a quarterfinal game Thursday at Boston University, where the seventhseeded Midshipmen fell to the second-seeded Terriers, 70-61.
The Midshipmen had breakfast as a team Wednesday morning then did some recovery work and a short walk-through practice at Alumni Hall. They ate lunch then boarded a bus for the trip to BWI Marshall Airport for a flight to Providence.
Because no flights directly into Boston were available, Navy had to take an hour-and-a-half bus ride from Providence to the team hotel near the university campus along the Charles River.
The Midshipmen held a shootaround on Thursday morning then played that night against a team that had a first-round bye, was well rested and playing at home.
Senior forward Anthony Morales came off the bench to score 17 points for Boston University who from start to finish Thursday night at Case Gymnasium. Sophomore forward Otto Landrum totaled 11 points and seven rebounds for the Terriers. Senior guard Miles Brewster contributed 10 points and four assists for Boston (16-16), which will host Lehigh in Sunday’s semifinals.
Sophomore point guard Austin Benigni scored 22 points to lead Navy (13-18), which saw a fivegame winning streak and its season come to an end. Junior guard Mac MacDonald came off the bench to score 14 points for the Midshipmen, who fell behind 16-6 at the 11:04 mark of the first half and played catch-up the rest of the way.
The Mids never really had their legs, reflected by 36% field goal shooting (22-for-61). Navy’s defense was also not up to the standard set during the five-game winning streak as Boston had a balanced attack that included nine points apiece from freshman guard Kyrone Alexander and freshman forward Matai Baptiste.
“Tonight was hard for us. We didn’t play our best game and we made a lot of mistakes,” Navy coach Ed DeChellis said. “We really couldn’t score. We didn’t shoot the ball very well. We had some shots we normally make and tonight we couldn’t put the ball in the basket. That affected us on the defensive end as well.”
MacDonald scored the final five points of the first half as Navy cut an 11-point deficit down to 33-27 at intermission. Boston quickly restored the lead to double digits early in the second half and repelled every Navy rally.
A pair of free throws by sophomore forward Mike Woods made the score 66-59 with 1:10 remaining and the Mids applied a full-court press in hopes of causing a turnover. The Terriers had to call two timeouts because they were unable to inbound the ball.
However, the third attempt led directly to a fastbreak layup by junior guard Ethan Okwuosa.
Sophomore forward Donovan Draper grabbed 14 rebounds, tied with Tom Lacey for most by a Navy player in a Patriot League Tournament game. The long-armed 6-foot-6 Florida native finished the season with 283 rebounds, which marks the highest total for a Navy player since the legendary David Robinson snagged 378 during the 1986-87 season.
Navy, which entered the season as the 15th youngest team in Division I in terms of average age on the roster, returns all five starters along with eight of nine members of the rotation. The Mids lose just one senior — backup guard Austin Inge.
“We had a bad spell there at the end of January into February,” said DeChellis, referencing an eightgame losing streak. “These kids worked hard and got ourselves out of it. We played some good basketball down the stretch. Proud of our guys. They improved so much from the beginning of the year until now. We have a great nucleus coming back.”
Top-seeded and three-time defending champion Colgate will host No. 5 Bucknell in the other semifinal. Bucknell blew out No. 4 American, 80-57, while No. 6 Lehigh upset No. 3 Lafayette, 76-61.