Nov. 19, 2016

Navy-High Point Box Score

HIGH POINT, N.C. - The Navy men's basketball team (1-3) came up just short at High Point (3-1), 69-62, in the second day of the HPU Tournament in the Millis Center on Saturday.

"Our kids competed and played hard," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis. "We didn't play poorly. But we did make some foolish turnovers and we couldn't get to the free throw line."

Navy led by as many as 11 points in the game, but the Panthers used a 9-0 run late in the second half to take control of the contest. Then, in the last two minutes of the game, Navy missed its final four field goals, all of which were 3-pointers, and also had one turnover as its comeback attempt was stunted.

Navy sophomore guard Ryan Pearson scored a career-high 15 points, while sophomore George Kiernan scored a career-best 11 points. Pearson and Kiernan each knocked down three 3-pointers.

Junior guard Shawn Anderson tallied 12 points with seven rebounds and three assists. Anderson scored in double figures for the 11th straight game.

Andre Fox scored a game-high 23 points for High Point and he was 11-of-13 from the free throw line.

The Mids raced out to a 7-0 lead in the game after buckets by freshman Evan Wieck and Anderson and then a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Hasan Abdullah. Navy's lead grew to 11 at 23-12 with a 13-1 run that featured 3-pointers by senior Zach Fong and Pearson. The Panthers closed the first half on a 10-4 spurt as the teams went in the locker room tied at 32-32.

"High Point is a good basketball team and they're playing in their own gym," said DeChellis. "We knew they were going to make a run at us."

High Point took control of the game in the second half and moved ahead by six at 50-44 before Navy sophomore George Kiernan hit back-to-back 3-pointers to knot the game at 50-50.

High Point quickly regained its six-point lead with a 3-pointer by Anthony Lindauer and then an and-one play by Miles Bowman. Navy got within four after two free throws by Anderson and a Pearson trey at 3:06, but Navy struggled to knock down the big shots as High Point sealed the 69-62 win.

High Point shot 29 free throws in the game, while Navy shot just 10. Navy was called for twice as many fouls as High Point (24-12).

Navy was 5-of-9 on 3-pointers in the first half, but shot 4-of-17 in the second half to finish the game at 35 percent.

Fong scored eight points and knocked down a pair of 3-pointers.

Wieck, in his first career start, amassed six points, eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Wieck's six offensive rebounds were tied for the third-most by a freshman in Navy program history. It was also the most offensive boards by a Navy freshman since Greg Sprink collected six in the 2004-05 season.

This was the first-ever meeting between Navy and High Point and it was Navy's lone true road game of the month of November.

Navy will play its final game of the HPU Tournament on Sunday at 3:30 PM against UNCG.