ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– Hasan Abdullah (Sr., Birmingham, Ala.) grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a short jumper that fell through the net with less than one second remaining to account for the deciding points in a 50-48 victory by the Navy (5-8, 2-0 Patriot League) men's basketball team over Holy Cross (10-5, 1-1) Sunday afternoon at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.
 
"Hopefully this will give us some confidence and we will practice a little better, take care of the ball better, and continue to grow as a team," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "I'm happy as heck that we are 2-0, but boy, we can play a heck of a lot better."
 
"Through the ups and downs of the game, I just kept telling the team that we were going to win this game," said Abdullah.
 
Points were hard to come by throughout the game, which saw the largest lead for either team be six points.  There also were eight ties and 10 lead changes.  Four of the lead changes came in the last eight minutes of the game.
 
Navy went on a 9-0 run midway through the first half to build a 19-13 lead, but Holy Cross accounted for the last five points before halftime to tie the score at 26.  The Crusaders proceeded to tally the opening five points of the second half to take their largest lead of the game at 31-26.
 
The Mids tied the game at 33 on a triple by John Carter Jr. (Fr., Spring Hill, Tenn.), then he drained another three pointer to give Navy a 36-35 advantage with just over 12 minutes left on the clock.  That lead lasted less than two minutes as the Crusaders soon took a 38-36 advantage. 
 
Each team scored one field goal over the next few minutes (40-38 Holy Cross), then Abdullah connected on a three-point shot to give Navy a 41-40 lead with 6:36 showing on the clock.  Holy Cross answered on the other end, and that basket started a 6-0 run over the ensuing three minutes that gave the Crusaders a 46-41 lead with 3:26 still to play.
 
The Mids responded with a field goal by Evan Wieck (Jr., Amarillo, Texas) with 3:08 remaining (46-43). 
 
Navy forced Holy Cross into a missed shot, but a turnover by the Mids gave the ball back to the Crusaders.  Abdullah would snare a defensive board after a missed triple by Holy Cross, then he converted his fourth three-point shot of the afternoon to tie the score at 46 with 90 seconds left to play.
 
The defense for the Mids held again as a Holy Cross turnover with 1:10 left to play gave Navy the ball.  George Kiernan (Sr., Hinsdale, Ill.) entered the ensuing Navy possession shooting 0-9 from the field for the game, but he drained an 18-foot baseline jumper with 41.6 seconds remaining to give Navy seven-straight points and a 48-46 lead.
 
Jehyve Floyd was fouled on the following Holy Cross possession, and he made two free throw attempts to tie the score at 48 with 25.7 seconds remaining.  Navy hurried the ball over halfcourt and called timeout with 20.2 seconds showing on the clock.
 
Cam Davis (So., Battlefield, Mo.) inbounded the ball to Abdullah, who dribbled the clock down from above the top of the key until there were less than 10 seconds remaining.  Abdullah passed to Davis, who found Carter.  After a few dribbles, Carter gave it back to Davis who penetrated the Holy Cross defense a few feet until he tried a hurried jumper from the right elbow with about six seconds left.  His shot was off, then the carom ball bounced off the hands of Wieck, who was standing in front of the basket, to Abdullah, who was standing about one foot in front of where Davis had attempted his shot.  Abdullah grabbed the board with four seconds left, took one dribble to his right and lofted a shot that hit the front of the rim, the back of the rim, the front of the rim and then the bottom of the net with six-tenths of a second left.
 
"We said we were going to take this at about five (seconds left) and everyone else go rebound," said DeChellis.  "If you take it at about five, then everybody else has time to go for the rebound."
 
"Actually, I ran the play wrong," said Abdullah of the final play of the game.  "Fortunately, Cam got a great look at it.  Then I got it up on the rim and it went in."
 
Holy Cross called timeout.  When the teams came back onto the court, Austin Butler stood on the baseline to inbound for the Crusaders.  He threw the ball deep into the free throw lane on the other end of the court past his teammates and out of bounds.  The ball was returned to the Mids under their own basket, and Davis inbounded to Kiernan who held the ball for the scant time remaining to seal the victory.
 
Both teams shot roughly 36 percent from the field for the game, with Navy shooting 7-24 (29.2%) from three-point land and Holy Cross going 5-20 (25%) from beyond the arc.  The Mids entered the game leading the Patriot League in free throw percentage at 76.2 percent for the year, but they were just 3-9 from the charity stripe today.  That 33.3-percent performance was in contrast to the 77.8% (7-9) effort by the Crusaders.
 
Navy held a 47-27 advantage on the glass today, which included a 17-3 cushion in offensive boards.  However, that large advantage resulted in just a 6-0 lead for the Mids in second chance points.
 
"We didn't shoot the ball well, we didn't shoot the ball from the free throw line very well, but we rebounded our brains out," said DeChellis.  "When we won games (in the past), we did so by playing good defense and rebounding the ball and I thought we did that today. 
 
"We defended pretty well.  That's a lot of hard stuff to defend and I thought our guys did it pretty well.  They do a great job of cutting.  They really change speeds on their cuts.  That's something we can't imitate in practice.  They really take you, plant and go to the other way."
 
Abdullah neared a triple-double as he totaled 15 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.  The guard also recorded two steals and turned the ball over twice in his team-high 35 minutes of playing time.
 
"No question," said DeChellis on Abdullah's key plays down the stretch.  "I thought he controlled the game for us on offense, defensively he was pretty solid.  He is a senior, and that is what you need a senior to do."
 
Wieck was 4-5 from the field in scoring nine points, and both Greg Summers (Fr., Ocoee, Fla.) and Luke Loehr (So., Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) grabbed seven rebounds.
 
Navy will take to the road for the first time during the league season Wednesday when it plays at American.