Box Score

PDF Box Score

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Lehigh (9-9, 3-4 PL) outscored Navy (7-12, 3-4 PL) by 13 points in the second half to claim a 61-47 win in Patriot League men's basketball action at Stabler Arena on Wednesday night. Lehigh outscored Navy 32-19 after halftime and took advantage of long Navy scoring droughts with runs of 10-0 and 11-2 to hand Navy a third-straight loss after opening conference play at 3-1.

Navy shot 38 percent (20-of-53) from the floor and was just 20 percent on 3-pointers (4-of-20).

"I thought we were pretty solid defensively and I thought we rebounded OK, but you have to make some baskets somewhere along the way to keep yourself in the game," said head coach Ed DeChellis. "Then we had all of those turnovers in bunches early in the second half and they started to separate from us. Our kids fought hard tonight, but we just couldn't make a basket."

Navy was able to race out to an 8-2 lead at the first media timeout on the strength of 3-pointers by senior guard Brandon Venturini and junior guard Kendall Knorr, in addition to a driving layup by junior guard Tilman Dunbar. But Lehigh would answer right back with an 11-4 run to take a 13-12 lead with under 11 minutes to play in the half.

Venutrini drilled a 3-pointer, but Lehigh scored eight points fairly quickly before Venturini answered back with his third triple of the half. After Lehigh went up by four, freshman forward Tom Lacey and Dunbar scored layups to knot the game at 26-26. Lehigh's Austin Price knocked down a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left in the first half before Navy's sophomore center Edward Alade had a tip-in at the first-half buzzer to cut Lehigh's lead to 29-28 at halftime.

Navy took the lead early in the second half when sophomore forward Michael Brown scored on a layup. The two teams then went back-and-forth until Dunbar's layup tied the game at 34-34 with 17:37 left in the second half.

Navy then got uncharacteristically careless and turned the ball over on five straight possessions as Lehigh made a 10-0 run to open a 44-34 lead. Lehigh's Justin Goldsborough got a second-chance layup, Kahron Ross hit a 3-pointer and Tim Kempton scored on a traditional three-point play during the spurt.

Navy would cut Lehigh's lead to six at 46-40, but the Mountain Hawks would go on an 11-2 run to push its lead to 14 at 56-42. Lehigh eventually grew its lead to as many as 18 before late buckets by Dunbar and James Hemphill cut the final deficit to 14 at 61-47.

Alston led Lehigh with 14 points and Price had 11. Kempton had 10 points and nine rebounds while Ross finished with nine points and seven assists.

Dunbar led Navy with 13 points and seven assists. He also had three rebounds and three steals in 35 minutes. Dunbar moved into 11th place in school history with his 264 career assists.

Venturini had 10 points and moved into sole possession of fifth place at Navy for career 3-pointers made (190). He also extended his streak of consecutive games with a made 3-pointer to 27, which is the third-longest streak in school history.

Alade finished with eight points, four rebounds and two blocks. Knorr had a season-high eight rebounds.

Navy played without senior forward Worth Smith, who suffered an injury to his right hand against Colgate on Saturday. Smith is Navy's leading scorer (15.8) and rebounder (6.6) this season.

Navy will next play at Holy Cross on Saturday at 7:00 PM. It will be Navy's fourth road contest in its last five games.