ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– Brown limited the offense for the Navy men's basketball team to 14 made field goals and 26-percent shooting in a 67-50 victory by the Bears (6-3) over the Mids (2-5) Saturday afternoon at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.
 
Navy fell behind 8-2 in the opening two minutes of the game, with Desmond Cambridge accounting for all eight of Brown's points.  The Mids climbed back to within two points at 10-8 and remained within striking distance until a 10-0 run gave the Bears a 29-15 lead with two minutes left in the half.  The Bears would soon lead by 15 points at 32-17 until back-to-back triples by Cam Davis (So., Battlefield, Mo.) –– with the latter coming from midcourt as the halftime buzzer sounded –– pulled the Mids to within 32-23 at intermission.
 
Navy entered the game averaging 5.3 three-point field goals made a game this year.  The Mids were 5-14 from three-point land in the first 20 minutes of today's game.  However, Navy was just 1-10 in its two-point field goal attempts in the first half.
 
And while Navy made six field goals and an equal number of free throws before halftime, on the other end of the floor Cambridge accounted for six field goals –– four of them triples –– and 16 points by himself.
 
Brown opened the second half on a 7-0 and 13-2 run to open up a 45-25 advantage three minutes into the second half.  The Bears shot 51.9 percent from the field after halftime and limited the Mids to 26.7 percent shooting in the stanza to salt the game away.
 
Navy turned the ball over 20 times to Brown's 18 turnovers on the afternoon, with those miscues leading to 21 points for the Bears and 14 for the Mids.  Brown also held a 28-12 edge in points scored in the paint.
 
"You can't turn the ball over 20 times and give the other team 21 points after those turnovers," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "That's the game.  And the second thing you can't do is shoot 25 percent and win.  It is almost statistically impossible, unless the other team shoots 24 percent and that doesn't happen all that often.  So we are not taking care of the basketball offensively and we are not making any baskets.  That's been our Achilles heel for the past two or three games now.
 
"Defensively, we are not horrible, but we are not good.  We have a bunch of young guys playing, so giving a team 67 points is not a lot of points.  We just can't score and take care of the basketball."
 
Davis and John Carter Jr. (Fr., Spring Hill, Tenn.) each scored 11 points for the Mids and Josiah Strong (Fr., Brooklyn Park, Minn.) added eight points. 
 
"They (Davis and Carter) are good players," said DeChellis.  "I think they are better than their each going 3-9 (shooting) today, but they are guys who can shoot the ball, draw and get to the free throw line.  That's good; that's what we need, but we need more from other guys whether they are starting or coming off the bench."
 
Cambridge led all players with 29 points on 12-18 shooting from the field, an overall performance that included a 5-11 effort from three-point range.
 
"He is a good player," said DeChellis of Cambridge.  "He is a hard guard for us because he is a long guy.  We have 14 baskets (as a team) and he has 12 himself.  So we ran into a hot guy tonight and the other guys just sort of pitched in, pitched in.  That's hard to overcome at times.  But we have to take care of the ball.  If we don't turn the ball over, they can't get all of those shots."
 
Navy will play two games this coming week before taking a break in the schedule for final exams.  That stretch begins with a Wednesday game at Delaware.
 
"We have a challenging schedule and a very young team," said DeChellis.  "We have to keep trying to be patient with them and help them and get better as our non-conference season goes on."