11/11/2001 - Men's Basketball
Navy Men's Basketball Team Defeats Team Champion

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ANNAPOLIS, Md.-Jason Jeanpierre (Jr./Clifton Park, N.Y.) scored 14 points, while Demond Shepard (Sr./Albany, N.Y.) and Kyle Barker (Jr./Lyons, Mich.) scored 12 points apiece to lead Navy to an 87-82 exhibition victory over Team Champion. It was Navy's final exhibition game of the year as the Mids will open up the 2001-02 season next Friday night at Rice (8 p.m., 1430 WNAV). Navy made 12 of its 28 three-point attempts after making just one of 11 attempts in the exhibition game against Lee University.

"I thought we struggled throughout the game," said DeVoe. "We never really were striking with our defense. We have been working the guys really hard and I think they were a little tired today."

The Mids played poorly in the first half, falling behind by as many as nine points when James Terry knocked down a jumper to make it 36-27 with 3:22 remaining. Navy, though, closed the first half with a rush, outscoring Team Champion 9-2 over the last 2:48 to make it 38-36 at the half.

"I played against Dale Chambers, Gene Slocum, Rick Moreland and Rob Wooster in the Annapolis summer league so I knew they were good players and they would give us a tough game," said Shepard. "They did a great job of controlling the tempo, we never could get our running game going."

Navy got its first lead since the 12 minute mark in the first half when Jeff Charles (So./Montclair, Va.) knocked down one of his two three-pointers on the night to give the Mids a 53-50 lead. Navy increased the lead to six when freshman Taj Mathews (Mercer Island, Wash.) knocked down his second three-pointer of the night.

"They were really sagging inside and giving us the three-pointer," said Charles. "The shots started to fall for us."

After Team Champion cut the lead to one at 56-55 on two free throws by Chambers with 10:28 remaining, the Mids went on a 19-8 run over the next 6:30 to put the game away. Barker scored five points in that span, including two free throws with 3:52 remaining to give the Mids a 75-63 lead.

Team Champion was able to get as close as three points at 81-78 with 52 seconds remaining on a basket by Wooster, but Navy was able to close the door by making six of eight free throws down the stretch.

Chambers and Tim Keehan led Team Champion with 16 points apiece, while Moreland add 14, Will Marshall 13 and Terry chipped in 12.

"The game today served its purpose," said DeVoe. "We were able to play a lot of guys and were able to put some different players in situations we wanted to see them in. We have to get much better before we hit the road for Texas next week."