EASTON, Pa. –– A baseline drive and reverse layup by Lafayette's Lukas Jarrett with 5.9 seconds left withstood three game-tying attempts by the Navy men's basketball team in the waning seconds to account for the final points of a 62-60 win by the Leopards (18-11, 10-8) over the Mids (14-15, 8-10), Saturday afternoon at the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.
 
Selected to place ninth in the Patriot League at the start of the season, Navy will be the No. 6 seed in the league tournament.  The Mids will play Thursday at third-seeded Boston U. in the quarterfinal round of the tournament.
 
It was a close game from start to finish as neither team held a lead larger than five points, there were 17 lead changes and the game was tied 13 times.
 
"We made a lot of mistakes throughout the game," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "It doesn't come down to the last play.  We missed free throws, we didn't take care of that; we missed a lot of layups; and at the end of the game we didn't get the defensive stop we needed to get.
 
"We played hard.  We just didn't play as well as we would have liked to play."
 
Navy went on a 6-0 run to take a 49-45 lead only to see Lafayette take a 54-51 lead with just over five minutes remaining.  Cam Davis (Jr., Battlefield, Mo.) made a three-point field goal to tie the game, then Patrick Dorsey (Fr., Raleigh, N.C.) made his second triple of the game –– and the season –– to give the Mids a 57-54 lead with 3:26 showing on the clock.
 
Lafayette would tie the score at 58 with 95 seconds left.  Greg Summers (So., Ocoee, Fla.) was fouled on Navy's next possession, but missed the front end of a bonus trip to the free throw line.
 
Navy committed a pair of fouls on the ensuing Lafayette trip down the court.  E.J. Stephens would eventually make a jumper with 38.2 seconds left to break the tie.  On the other end of the floor, John Carter Jr. (So., Spring Hill, Tenn.) missed a three-point shot, but the carom was rebounded by Evan Wieck (Sr., Amarillo, Texas).  The ball soon found its way into the hands of Davis who made a shot from near the top of the key to tie the proceedings at 60 with 16.9 seconds remaining.
 
Out of timeouts, the Leopards rushed down the court and sent the ball into Jarrett who was positioned just wide of the right side of the free throw lane about 10 feet from the rim.  He spun around a Navy defender, ran under the basket and scored on the reverse layup to make the score 62-20.  The Mids would call their last timeout before the ball was inbounded with 5.9 seconds left.
 
After the break, the Mids inbounded the ball to Summers who drove unimpeded down the right side of the court.  His layup attempt was blocked from behind by a trailing Dylan Hastings.  The Mids had two good tips at the ball as the clock wound down, with the latter attempt by Wieck bouncing around the rim and off of it.
 
"They made a big shot," said DeChellis, "and we had three tip-ins at the buzzer that didn't go."
 
Navy had twice as many offensive rebounds as Lafayette, 14-7, but recorded just a 14-11 advantage in second-chance points scored.  The Mids also were just 7-13 from the foul line in comparison to the 5-6 effort by the Leopards.
 
Navy shot 40 percent from the field and was 7-23 (30.4%) from three-point range.  Lafayette made 46 percent of its field goal attempts and was 5-19 (26.3%) from beyond the arc.
 
Davis led the Mids with 15 points, Luke Loehr (Jr., Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) scored 11 points and Summers grabbed 10 rebounds.
 
This marks the fourth time in five seasons Navy has improved upon its preseason poll placement by at least three spots.
 
"We should be the five seed (would have been with a win today)," said DeChellis.  "I love our team; I love what they do.  We can play better.  That was the frustrating thing out there today.  We can play better.  We were picked at the bottom of the league and we are in the middle.  That's a great opportunity for our kids.  We now go to Boston who we split with.  That's a whole new season, a whole different season. Hopefully we will play a little better Thursday and we can make the little plays.  We didn't make all of the little plays today and they ended up being really big plays."
 
The Mids split their two games against Boston this season, winning, 60-58, in overtime on the road and losing, 77-53, at home.