LEWISBURG, Pa. –– Cam Davis (Sr., Battlefield, Mo.) gave the Navy men's basketball team a one-point lead with 5.4 seconds remaining, then nailed two free throws with seven-tenths of a second left to push the Mids past Bucknell, 63-60, Sunday evening at Sojka Pavilion in Lewisburg, Pa.
 
The win improves Navy to 5-1 on the year, made the Mids the only one of the six Patriot League teams playing this weekend to win both games, and gave Navy a five-game winning streak against Bucknell for the first time since winning six in a row from 2000-02. 
 
"I'm really proud of our guys," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "It took a great team effort for us to win both games this weekend."
 
Navy led for over 35 minutes of the game and trailed for just 31 seconds, but never had any kind of comfortable advantage. 
 
The Mids jumped out to a 10-2 lead and soon were in front, 19-10.  The Bison quickly scored the next 10 points to take a 20-19 lead.  Navy closed the first half on a 7-0 run of its own to take a 26-20 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
 
Navy would soon lead by 11 at 31-20, still held a 10-point advantage at 42-32 following a John Carter Jr. (Jr., Spring Hill, Tenn.) triple with 12:40 left on the clock, and built its largest lead of the game at 48-36 with 9:26 remaining after Davis scored five-straight points.
 
Bucknell scored the next seven points –– all from the foul line –– to close to within 48-43 with 7:32 left to play.  Carter hit a jumper to stretch the cushion back to seven points, but a Bucknell layup followed by two more free throws made the score Navy 50, Bucknell 47, with 5:28 remaining.
 
Navy tallied seven of the next 11 points to build a 57-51 lead with 3:17 left to play.  Deuce Turner scored on a layup for Bucknell, then Davis made the first of two foul shots to give the Mids a 58-53 lead with 2:37 still to play.  He would miss the second, but the Bison knocked the rebound out of bounds thereby giving Navy another chance.  Davis missed a jumper to end the extra possession, and the Mids fouled Paul Newman on the carom to stop play with 2:24 left and send him to the charity stripe.  He converted both attempts to draw the Bison to with 58-55 with 2:24 remaining.
 
The Mids also had two shots on their next possession, but still came away empty.  The Bison would miss a three-point attempt on their ensuing trip down the court, but missed, too.  Players from each team battled for the loose ball and a jump ball was called.  The arrow pointed toward Bucknell, giving the Bison possession with 92 seconds showing on the clock.
 
The Bison missed a jumper, grabbed an offensive rebound, had a shot blocked and grabbed the offensive rebound, then were fouled with 1:12 left to play.  Xander Rice converted both attempts to make it a one-point game.
 
Navy held the ball for the first part of its next possession, then Patrick Dorsey's (So., Raleigh, N.C.) entry pass was intercepted by Bucknell's Turner with 47 seconds remaining.  Turner would miss a jumper with 31 seconds left, with Carter grabbing the defensive board and Austin Inge (Fr., Greensboro, N.C.) being fouled with 25.7 seconds left.  He missed his first effort before making the second to give Navy a 59-57 lead.
 
The Bison called timeout once they brought the ball over halfcourt.  When play resumed, Bucknell sent the ball inside to Newman.  The 6-9 center was primarily being defended by 6-0 guard Davis.  Newman scored while being fouled by Davis with 11.4 seconds still to play.  He would make the foul shot to give Bucknell a 60-59 lead.
 
Now trailing for just the second time all game, Navy gave the ball to Davis who drove into the heart of the free throw lane before attempting a nine-foot, fadeaway jumper that went through the rim with 5.4 seconds remaining.
 
"Cam made the big shot," said DeChellis.  "He is our senior leader and he came through for us again."
 
Once the ball was inbounded, Bucknell's Turner hurried a desperation heave from the Navy side of halfcourt.  The attempt missed the Bucknell basket and went out of bounds with 1.2 seconds remaining.  The Mids would inbound the ball to Davis, who was fouled with 0.7 seconds left.  He made both efforts to push the Navy lead with 63-60.
 
Bucknell first called timeout, then DeChellis called a timeout as well.  When the teams lined up for play, the 6-7 Richard Njoku was guarding the inbounds passer.  Njoku promptly deflected the inbounds pass to close out the game.
 
The foul line was a huge factor in the game being as close as it was.  Bucknell was 24-26 (92.3%) from the free throw line in the game, including 21-23 (91.3%) in the second half.  That was in contrast to Navy, which was 11-20 (55.0%) from the charity stripe on the night and 9-15 (60.0%) in the second stanza.
 
Away from the foul line, Navy was 23-64 (35.9%) from the field, including 6-22 (27.3%) from three-point range, and Bucknell was 17-53 (32.1%) from the floor, including 2-19 (10.5%) from three-point land.  Additionally, Navy scored 19 points after the 14 Bucknell turnovers and the Bison scored just six points following the 10 turnovers committed by the Mids.
 
Individually, Davis scored 18 points and paced the Mids with three assists.  Carter also scored 10 points, with seven other Mids scoring between four and six points. 
 
"We are a banged up team and relied on our bench again," said DeChellis. "I love the grit and determination of this team."
 
Bucknell was led by 15 points from Turner.
 
Navy's games against Loyola scheduled for Jan. 9-10 have been postponed.  The Mids currently are not slated to compete again until facing American Jan. 16-17.