NORFOLK, Va. –– Old Dominion closed the game on a 27-7 run to pull away from the Navy men's basketball team and win a 67-44 decision Tuesday night at the Constant Convocation Center in Norfolk, Va., in the season opener for both teams.
 
The Monarchs, who posted a 25-7 record a year ago, turned a slim 15-14 lead into a 33-17 advantage late in the first half.  The margin was 15 points –– 38-23 –– a little more than one minute into the second half when the Mids started to chip away at the deficit.  
 
Navy closed to within three points at 40-37 on a three-point field goal by Isaiah Burnett (So., Annapolis, Md.) with 9:47 left on the clock. 
 
"I thought our guys didn't play real well at the end of the first half," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "We couldn't make a basket.  We got down by 15, but then in the first eight minutes of the second half I was real proud of our kids.  We battled back and had it down to three points. 
 
"We played hard, we executed and we got our hands on the basketball (during the rally).  And we made some shots.  You make two or three shots in a row and your defense looks a little better because you have a little more juice playing defense.  We had some chances."
 
B.J. Stith answered with a triple of his own on the ensuing Old Dominion possession.  After a Navy missed shot, Stith connect on another trey to open up a 46-37 lead for the Monarchs with 8:19 remaining in the game. Navy came away with one made free throw on each of its next two trips down the court to make it a seven-point game, but Old Dominion scored the next 12 points to build a 58-39 lead with 4:21 left to play.
 
"We made two silly turnovers," said DeChellis, "which led to them getting a couple of open threes and they made them to get the lead back up to 10 or 11 points and we didn't recover."
 
Old Dominion was 10-27 from three-point land, with Stith alone connecting on 4-7 efforts from beyond the arc.  On the other side of the court, Navy was 5-21 from three-point range, which was part of a 25 percent overall shooting performance.  ODU sank 35 percent of its shots from the floor in all.  The Monarchs also were 17-26 from the foul line and the Mids were 11-18 from the charity stripe.
 
ODU scored 12 points off of 14 Navy turnovers and the Mids did not score after any of the eight turnovers it forced the Monarchs into.  ODU also held an 8-1 advantage in blocks.
 
"I thought our kids really tried to rebound the ball (ODU outrebounded Navy, 46-41)," said DeChellis.  "That was a key to the game. I thought we did a good job there, we just couldn't make any shots.  It is really hard to win when you score forty-some points.  But defensively we held them to 35 percent shooting.  Our defense wasn't bad; they just made some big shots at big times to open it up.  Once they did, the last three or four minutes the rim looked really big to them."
 
Individually, George Kiernan (Sr., Hinsdale, Ill.) scored 10 points for Navy and John Carter Jr., (Fr., Spring Hill, Tenn.) contributed 10 rebounds and eight points.  Leading all players in the game in scoring was ODU's Ahmad Caver with 24 points.
 
"We will get better," said DeChellis.  "I thought our young guys battled.  John Carter had 10 rebounds in his first time out.  Luke Loehr (So., Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) did a nice job (six points, four rebounds).  We're optimistic. We have a lot of work to do but I liked our fight coming out of the locker room in the second half; it was very good for us."
 
Navy will open the home portion of its season Friday when it plays host to Maryland as part of the Veterans Classic in Alumni Hall.  Game one of the doubleheader features Providence taking on Wichita State.