ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– Boston U. (9-8, 2-2 Patriot League) broke open a tie game with three minutes remaining by going on an 8-0 run to separate itself from the Navy (5-10, 2-2) men's basketball team and win a 75-69 decision Saturday afternoon at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.
 
"It was another winnable game that we didn't find a way to win," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.
 
After Navy took a 28-26 lead into the locker room at halftime, the second half could not have started much better for the Mids than it did.  The Mids scored on each of their first four and six of their first seven possessions of the stanza to jump out to a 42-28 lead four minutes into the half.  Navy was 6-7 from the field during that initial surge.
 
"We had some stops and had some really good shots," said George Kiernan (Sr., Hinsdale, Ill.) on the second-half start by the Mids. 
 
"I thought we came out of the locker room pretty well," said DeChellis.  "I got after them a bit, and then we got a 14-point lead.  Then we just did things that took the ball out of our hands on offense too much."
 
It remained an 11-point game at 47-36 when Jonas Harper made a triple and a layup in a span of 15 seconds for the Terriers to cut the margin down to six points at 47-41 with 12:16 showing on the clock.  A Cam Davis (So., Battlefield, Mo.) three pointer soon pushed the lead back out to nine points at 52-43 with 11 minutes remaining.  The Navy advantage was back down to six points at 54-48, then Boston U. went on a 12-2 run to take a 61-56 lead with five minutes still to play.
 
Evan Wieck (Jr., Amarillo, Texas) scored on a short jumper on the next Navy possession, then a little more than a minute later Kiernan drained a three-point field goal to tie the game at 61 with 3:31 left on the clock.
 
"When it is tied with three minutes left, you have to find a way to win the game," said DeChellis.
 
Boston U. would score on each of its remaining nine possessions.  The Terriers quickly ran off the next eight points –– six of which came on three field goals by Max Mahoney –– to take a 69-61 lead with 1:21 remaining.  Kiernan drained a jumper and a foul shot on Navy's next trip down the court to make it a five-point game with 1:11 left, but a pair of free throws by Javante McCoy was followed by a McCoy steal.  That led to the Mids fouling Tyler Scanlon with 31.1 seconds left, and his one made free throw made the score 72-64.  McCoy then gathered in the rebound after a missed Navy triple, and he was fouled with 19.7 seconds left.  Two made free throws by him gave the visitors a 74-64 cushion.
 
"We switched some defenses (in the second half), but couldn't get stops," said Kiernan.  "We scored enough points for us to win by our standards.  We just didn't defend."
 
Both teams shot roughly the same percentage from the field in the first half –– 39 percent –– and Boston made 60 percent of their field goals –– 15-25 –– after halftime and Navy made 56.7 percent –– 17-30 –– of its shots from the floor in the second half.  In addition to ending the game with one more made field goal –– 27-26 –– the Mids also were plus one in three-point field goals made –– 7-6.  The difference in the game came at the foul line.  Navy was 1-3 from the charity stripe in the second half and 8-13 from the foul line in the game.  Conversely, Boston U. was 16-19 from the free throw line after halftime and 17-22 from the stripe for the afternoon.
 
"We didn't play any defense in the second half," said DeChellis.  "You can't let a team score 49 points in a half and let them shoot 60 percent in the second half and expect to win. 
 
"We had eight turnovers in the second half after having eight in the first half.  And we couldn't get to the free throw line.  I look at the numbers and I see we have more baskets than they do.  When you have to make plays, we didn't make them."
 
Boston held an 8-3 advantage over Navy in steals.  Navy's 16 turnovers led to 15 points for the Terriers and Boston's 12 turnovers led to nine points for the Mids. 
 
Kiernan scored 19 points to lead the Navy offense, Davis added 15 points and Hasan Abdullah (Sr., Birmingham, Ala.) contributed 12 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.
 
Mahoney was 8-10 from the field and 6-7 from the foul line to lead all players with 22 points.  McCoy added 15 points and Harper was 5-5 from the field including 3-3 from three-point range in scoring 14 points in 16 minutes of playing time.
 
Navy will play now back-to-back road games, a week that begins Wednesday at Lafayette and ends Saturday at Army.