ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– John Carter Jr. (So., Spring Hill, Tenn.) made five three-point field goals and the Navy men's basketball team (2-1) as a whole made 12 triples during an 87-56 victory over Washington (Md.) College (1-1), Sunday afternoon at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.
 
"Games like this are always scary," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis. "Our guys did a great job of coming out of the game strong.  We scored 16 points early on six assists, so that was good.  Everybody contributed.  I thought we handled it maturity wise and the guys did a good job in the locker room."
 
The Mids scored the first 11 points of the game to seize control early.  The Shoremen cut the margin down to 16-8, but Navy responded with a 9-0 run ­to build a 25-8 cushion.  Navy would soon go on a 17-10 run to take a 42-15 advantage before it went into halftime holding a 44-22 lead.
 
Of the 14 Navy players who took to the court in the first half, eight of them scored at least two points with Richard Njoku (So., Washington, D.C.) leading all players with nine points.
 
Navy expanded its lead out to as many as 37 points in the second half at 74-37. 
 
Carter scored 11 points in a row for Navy during one stretch of the second half.  He connected on a three-point field goals on three-straight possessions, then added a layup a short while later. The five treys fell one shy of tying his career high.
 
Navy shot over 50 percent from the field in each half and ended the game connecting on 30-of-56 shots in all for an overall mark of 53.6 percent.  The Mids also were 12-of-24 from the three-point line and made 15-of-22 (68.2%) of their foul shots.
 
Defensively, Navy held Washington to 38.6 percent (25-of-57) shooting from the field including a 7-of-22 (31.8%) effort from beyond the arc.
 
Navy won the battle of the boards, 42-26, which led to a 14-6 advantage in second chance points.  And though the Mids narrowly won the turnover contest (15-16), Navy scored 27 points after turnovers and limited Washington to just 14 such points.
 
Joining Carter in double figures were Evan Wieck (Sr., Amarillo, Texas) with 12 and Sean Yoder (Fr., Dublin, Pa.) with 10. 
 
"I think defensively we would like to be a little better," said DeChellis in assessing his team through the first week of the season. "Even though our numbers say we are pretty good defensively, we had too many drives to the basket tonight.  Some of that can be human nature as we were playing East Carolina on Friday and Washington College today.  The intensity is not the same, even though you try to get it there.
 
"I like our team.  I like some of the things we are doing.  If there is one thing we need to do it is cleaning up taking care of the ball.  We can't continue to turn the ball over.  We had 15 turnovers today versus no pressure.  We have to clean that up.  But overall, we have an opportunity to be 3-0, then we would be really sitting good.  We are 2-1 after three games and now we have a really tough week coming."
 
Navy will next take to the courts Nov. 19 when it plays at Liberty and will return to Alumni Hall Nov. 22 against Lipscomb.