Click the above photo to watch the postgame press conference with Ed DeChellis

ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– In a game of significant runs by both teams, American (11-11, 7-4) outscored the Navy (12-10, 6-5) men's basketball team 15-3 over the last five minutes to record a 62-54 victory Wednesday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.
 
The Eagles also had the first run of the game as they jumped out to leads of 12-2 and 16-4.  Navy responded with a 15-2 run to take a 19-18 lead with just over seven minutes remaining in the half.  The Eagles would score nine of the next 11 points on their way to taking a 31-29 lead at halftime.
 
American forced Navy into 10 first-half turnovers and committed just four of their own.  That helped the Eagles to an 8-0 edge in fastbreak points in the opening 20 minutes of play.
 
"We didn't start the game very well," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis, "and that was disappointing.  We bounced back and got it to two points at halftime.  We just turned the ball over too much in the first half.  We gave them open layups on turnovers where we couldn't even get back to guard the ball."
 
Navy had scored the last four points of the first half to make it a two-point different, then scored the first six points of the second half to complete a 10-0 run that gave it a 35-31 advantage.  Back came American with a 13-3 run that put the visitors in front, 44-38, with 12:12 showing on the clock.
 
Navy would score the next 11 points to regain a 49-44 advantage at the 6:38 mark.  Evan Wieck (Sr., Amarillo, Texas) soon scored a basket for Navy to give it a 51-47 lead with 5:16 still to play.  That would prove to be the last made field goal by the Mids. 
 
American scored seven points over the course of its next three possessions to take a 54-51 lead with 2:40 left on the clock.  Cam Davis (Jr., Battlefield, Mo.) made one of two free throw attempts on the ensuing Navy possession (54-52, 2:10 left), then Sa'eed Nelson scored a basket for the Eagles (56-52, 1:38).  Wieck was fouled the next time the Mids had the ball, but he missed the front end of the bonus and the errant shot went out of bounds off of Navy. 
 
After the Mids committed several fouls to place the Eagles near the bonus, American's Mark Gasperini scored in the paint to boost the lead out to 58-52 with 42.6 seconds left.  Navy came away with points on its next trip down the floor, then a pair of free throws by American gave it a 60-52 advantage with 25.1 seconds still to play.
 
Greg Summers (So., Ocoee, Fla.) made two free throws for Navy that made the score 60-54 with 19.7 seconds left, but that was followed by American making two more free throws one-half of a second later to close out the scoring for the game.
 
"We just didn't score the last 6-7 minutes of the game," said DeChellis.  "We didn't make any baskets. The last five minutes we just didn't make any shots (0-8)."
 
American connected on 50 percent (11-22) of its field goal attempts in the second half, a tally that included a 5-12 effort from three-point range.  Conversely, Navy shot 30.8 percent (8-26) from the field after halftime, which included a 1-11 showing from long range.
 
The Eagles were 9-23 (39.1%) from three-point land in the game, with Jamir Harris, a transfer from Minnesota, alone going 5-8 from beyond the arc. 
 
Davis scored 13 points, Wieck added 12 points and six rebounds and John Carter Jr. (So., Spring Hill, Tenn.) contributed 10 points.
 
Navy will head on the road this weekend for a Saturday afternoon game at Colgate.
 
"We have to play better," said DeChellis.  "As I told the guys the other day, individually we have to play better.  We have to shoot the ball better; we have to take care of the basketball.  You have to do that individually before the team becomes better.  I made an analogy the other day to them: you can't be in a symphony and play bad notes and all of a sudden want it to sound good.  It is not going to sound right.  Individually, I've got to figure out a way to help them; to not turn it over.  That's frustrating.  We have to get more shots.  But individually we have to play better."