Box Score

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Five players scored in double figures as the visiting American men's basketball team (7-21, 4-13 PL) upset Navy (15-14, 10-7 PL), 74-58, on Wednesday evening in Alumni Hall. With one league game remaining, Navy sits alone in fourth place in the Patriot League standings, while the Eagles are tied for last.

American shot 61 percent from the field (25-of-41), while the Mids shot just 31 percent (21-of-67) and played rushed on the offensive end. Navy shot just 18 percent on 3-pointers (5-of-28) and saw a number of layups roll right off the rim.

"Every shot seems like life or death right now," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis. "We couldn't make a basket and that's because we weren't relaxed on the floor. We were playing really tight. We need to slow down, relax and take a breath of fresh air."

Navy grabbed a season-high 23 offensive rebounds, but was able to convert them to just 15 second-chance points.

American led wire-to-wire on Wednesday and opened the game on a 9-2 run and then took a 10-point lead at 20-10. Navy missed all 10 of its 3-point attempts in the first half and American led by six (33-27) at halftime.

Navy had its best spurt of the game early in the second half as Bryce Dulin, Hasan Abdullah and Shawn Anderson knocked down 3-pointers to cut American's lead to one at 37-36, but the Eagles responded with a 7-0 run to again extend its lead.

The teams then went back-and-forth as George Kiernan hit a 3-pointer and Tom Lacey made a jumper to cut Navy's margin to five points at 48-43. However, James Washington answered right back with a 3-pointer and Navy could not get closer than eight points for the remainder of the game and dropped its third straight contest.

Freshman Sa'eed Nelson led American with 19 points, while classmate Mark Gasperini scored 13 points with five rebounds. Charlie Jones scored 12 points with seven rebounds and Matt Cimino added 12 points. Washington was the fifth Eagle in double figures with 10 points.

Anderson scored a team-high 17 points for Navy to go along with six rebounds. Lacey posted his fifth double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Kiernan finished with nine points and a career-high eight rebounds and senior Edward Alade scored nine points with five boards.

Lacey had five offensive rebounds in the game and now has 93 on the season, which is the fourth most in Navy history since the statistic was consistently kept in 1987. Lacey also leads the Patriot League in offensive rebounds per game (3.2).

Wednesday was Senior Night for Navy's five-member Class of 2017 (Alade, Tim Abruzzo, Zach Fong, James Hemphill and Grant Vermeer). DeChellis put all five seniors in the game's starting lineup and the group was honored in a pregame ceremony.

Navy will close the Patriot League Regular Season at first-place Bucknell (22-8, 14-3 PL) on Saturday at 12 noon on CBS Sports Network. A win (or a Holy Cross loss to Boston U.) would guarantee Navy a top-four seed in the Patriot League Tournament and a home quarterfinal game on March 2.