Nov. 20, 2006
Tipping It Off
Coming off a convincing 87-76 win over Stony Brook on Sunday, the sharp-shooting Navy men's basketball team looks for its third win in a row when Maryland-Eastern Shore comes to Alumni Hall for the home opener on Tuesday, Nov. 21, at 7:00 pm. Navy is 3-1 on the season, owning wins over a trio of solid teams in Loyola (Md.), Brown and Stony Brook. UMES comes into the contest with an 0-1 record after falling to Wagner in its season opener on Saturday. Sponsor families of Midshipmen will receive two free tickets to Tuesday's game with pre-registration. Call 1-800-US4-NAVY to reserve your tickets and to purchase additional tickets at a discounted rate.
Looking Back
The Navy men's basketball team improved to 3-1 on Sunday with an impressive 87-76 victory at Stony Brook. The Mids ended its four-game season-opening slate away from Annapolis with a 3-1 record, snapping a five-game road losing streak with the win over the Seawolves.
Stony Brook, which was coming off a road win at Penn State on Friday, came out smoking, jumping out to a 9-0 and 18-7 cushions 10 minutes into the game. However, the Mids found their stroke, using a 27-6 run over the last 10 minutes of the first half to take a 34-29 advantage into the locker room.
Stony Brook responded to start the second half, taking a 42-40 lead six minutes into the second half, but Navy came back with a 15-0 run fueled by five three-pointers to take the lead for good. Stony Brook would get no closer than eight (75-67) the rest of the way and the Mids went 22-of-26 in the second half from the free throw line for the victory.
Greg Sprink led Navy with 29 points on just 7-of-9 shooting. The junior guard hit three three-pointers and went 12-of-12 from the free throw line. Chris Harris scored a career-high 21 points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out four assists in a fantastic all-around effort off the bench. Adam Teague contributed 19 points, including six three pointers, off the bench as well.
The story of the game was Navy's three-point shooting. The Mids opened the game 0-of-6 from long range, but finished 15-of-23 (.652) in the last 32 minutes of the game. The 15 three-pointers are the second most all-time. Navy as a team shot .581 from the field, including .667 (12-of-18) in the pivotal second half.
STONY BROOK GAME NOTES
• The win gave Navy a 3-1 record for the first time since the 1998-99 season.
• The win snapped a five-game road losing streak.
• Navy went 15-of-29 from three-point range, the second most three-pointers in a single game in school history. Over the last two games, Navy is 28-of-58 (.483) from three-point range.
• Navy had two players score 20 points (Greg Sprink - 29, Chris Harris - 21) for the first time since Sprink and Kaleo Kina accomplished the feat against UMBC last year.
• Navy grabbed just five offensive rebounds against Stony Brook. Its the first time since Jan. 6, 2001, also against Stony Brook, that the Mids grabbed five or fewer offensive rebounds.
• Navy has now shot over .500 percent in back-to-back games for the first time since Jan. 2-6, 2001.
• Navy has now made 12 straight shots from two-point range in the first half, dating back to the St. John's contest.
• Navy's .581 shooting percentage for the entire game was the best since shooting .611 against Army on Jan. 27, 2000.
• Navy has now dished out 34 assists on 50 made baskets over the last two games.
A Win Over Maryland-Eastern Shore Would
• give Navy a 4-1 record for the first time since 1998-99.
• push the Navy series lead to 3-1 over UMES.
• give Navy a three-game winning streak for the first time since Dec. 22-31, 2005.
• put Navy three games over .500 for the first time in the Billy Lange era and the first time since the 2000-01 season.
• increase Navy's non-conference record to 11-3 in the last 14 non-conference games, dating back to last year.
• move Navy's record in home openers to 2-1 under head coach Billy Lange.
• give Navy a 4-3 home-opener record since 2000-01.
Mid Matters
• Navy is 3-1 for the first time in nine years.
• Navy has made 43 three-pointers in the first four games of the year. That is accounting for .462 percent of Navy's scoring early on. The .462 percent of Navy's scoring via three-pointers ranks third in the country behind Appalachian State (.490) and Bradley (.472).
• Navy is 28-of-58 over the last two games from three-point land. From inside the arc, Navy is 22-of-31 (.710).
• In Navy's three wins so far this year, the Mids are shooting .515 from the field and .434 from the three-point line. Greg Sprink paces Navy with a 20.0 ppg average in three wins.
• Navy leads the Patriot League in free throw percentage (.882) and three-pointers made per game (10.75). Navy is also second in scoring offense (69.8), field goal percentage (.481), three-point percentage (.410), rebounding defense (27.0), turnover margin (+0.25) and assist-to-turnover ratio (0.87).
Maryland-Eastern Shore Tidbits
Maryland-Eastern Shore enters Tuesday's game with an 0-1 record after dropping an 82-76 decision on Saturday to Wagner. The Hawks were 7-22 last year and went 4-14 in the MEAC, good for 10th in the league. Head coach Larry Lessett welcomed back five letterwinners and three starters from last year's team. Lessett recorded just two wins in his first year in Princess Anne, before posting last year's 7-22 record. The Hawks were picked to finish 11th in the preseason poll.
Leading the charge for Maryland-Eastern Shore will be a trio of guards, Corey Brown, Jesse Brooks and Ed Tyson. Brown tallied 23 points with three rebounds and three assists in the loss to Wagner. Brooks scored 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds while Tyson added 14 points and five rebounds. The trio combined for 57 of UMES' 76 points and went a combined 22-of-52 from the field. The Hawks as a team shot .426 (29-of-68) from the field, including 8-of-29 from three-point land. They were outrebounded, 43-38, but recorded just 13 turnovers.
Brooks and Antonio McMillion are the returning starters from last year, averaging 9.4 and 10.2 ppg, respectively.
# GO NAVY #
