Dec. 29, 2006
YALE (2-8) at NAVY (9-4)
Saturday, Dec. 30, 2006 • 7:00 pm (EST)
Alumni Hall (5,710) • Annapolis, Md.
STREAMING VIDEO: www.navysports.com
RADIO: WNAV (1430 AM)
INTERNET: www.wnav.com, www.yahoosports.com
GAMETRACKER: www.navysports.com
SATURDAY'S PROMOTIONS:
• HOLIDAY HOOPLA -- Print off a coupon and receive two tickets for the price of one when presenting the coupon at the ticket window.
• JERSEY NIGHT -- All kids (14 and under) wearing their basketball jersey to the game will receive free admission.
Tipping It Off
Navy resumes its non-conference season on Saturday night with a 7:00 pm tip-off against Yale at Alumni Hall. The Mids enter the game with a 9-4 record and will be playing their first game in seven days after falling to Georgetown, 65-44, on Dec. 23. Yale is 2-8, but has been competitive in every game, dropping a 78-69 decision in its last game on Thursday against Massachusetts. Saturday's game will also be streamed online for free at www.navysports.com and Pete Medhurst will call all the action on the airwaves on WNAV (1430 AM), as well as on the internet at www.wnav.com and www.yahoosports.com.
About Yale
Yale enters Saturday's game with a 2-8 overall mark after a hard-fought 78-69 decision against a strong Massachusetts team on Thursday. In that game, Eric Flato led the Bulldogs with 22 points and five assists, but the Bulldogs shot just .323 percent from the field, had 21 turnovers and were outrebounded 49-34. They did force 30 UMass turnovers.
Flato leads Yale with a 15.3 ppg average, and Casey Hughes adds 10.9 ppg. Hughes paces the Bulldogs with a 6.4 rpg average. Yale has won just one of its last nine games. However, that win came against American on Dec. 9, 70-53.
Navy Against the Ivy League
The Mids are 1-1 against the Ivy League this year and with a win over Yale can secure their first winning record against the league since the 2000-01 season (1-0). The last time Navy won two games against the Ivy League came in the 1988-89 season. Navy defeated Brown, 70-47, on Nov. 14, and fell to Penn, 79-58, on Dec. 7.
Georgetown Leftovers
• Navy scored a season-low 44 points and shot a season-worst .313 percent from the field in falling to the Hoyas.
• Navy lost for the first time in 2006-07 when shooting over .700 percent from the free throw line, as it shot .833 (10-of-12). The Mids were 7-0 entering the Georgetown game.
• The Mids lost for only the second time (Villanova) when their opponent committed more turnovers. Navy is now 7-2 when it happens.
• The Mids have lost nine games in a row when scoring 49 or fewer points.
• Navy has now held nine straight foes under their shooting percentage entering the game. Georgetown shot just .432 percent.
• The Mids made a season-low four three-pointers vs. the Hoyas.
• The Navy freshman class entered the game averaging 22.5 ppg, but scored just two points against the Hoyas.
• Navy tallied just two bench points. It is not, however, a season low, as the bench scored zero points in the season opener against Loyola (Md.).
Defense Rises To The Occasion
Last year, Navy's defense allowed 71.3 ppg, the 10th-highest total in school history. With a new focus on defense, Navy has responded by having a memorable seven-game defensive stretch.
Over the last seven games, just two teams have reached the 70-point mark (Penn - 79, Howard - 75). However, Howard needed two overtimes to reach that total, as it ended regulation with just 57 points. If looking at just regulation (first 40 minutes), Navy has given up an average of 55.8 points per game over the last seven games.
Over the last seven games, foes are shooting 137-of-359 (.382 percent) and 32-of-115 (.278 percent) from long distance.
Three-Point Streak Continues to Climb
Navy enters the Yale contest contest having connected on at least one three-pointer in 107 consecutive games. The last time Navy did not make a trey came in the Jan. 26, 2003, contest against Colgate (0-3). Navy's longest consecutive-games streak with a three-pointer is 134 games (12-23-98 to 1-24-03).
The Same Five
Navy started the same five players (Corey Johnson, Kaleo Kina, Greg Sprink, Trey Stanton and T.J. Topercer) in the first 10 games of the season. Last year, Navy used nine different starting line-ups, with no lineup starting 10 games. In fact, just one lineup since the 2001 season had started more games than the first starting group this year. That group started 12 games together in 2004-05.
Lange changed up the lineup in Navy's 11th game (against Delaware Valley), inserting Teague for Topercer, which was also the lineup for the Washington (Md.) and Georgetown contets.
Home Sweet Home
Navy enjoyed getting back to familiar settings, ending its season-long four-game homestand with a 3-1 mark. The Mids own a 5-1 record at home and are off to their best start in Alumni Hall in almost 10 years. The last eight times Navy won its first three games at home, the Mids won at least 18 games, including at least 20 wins in each of the last seven occasions.
Shut `Em Down
Just three teams have reached their scoring average entering the Yale game. Penn accomplished the feat, snapping a five-game run of Navy's defense holding foes under their scoring average. Nonetheless, Navy has held 8-of-11 foes under their pre-game average.
The Mids have held eight straight opponents under their field goal percentage entering Saturday's game with the Bulldogs.
# GO NAVY #
