EMMITSBURG, Md. –– Another effective defensive effort by the Navy men's basketball team limited Mount St. Mary's to five made field goals in the second half and 11 for the game in a 67-40 victory by the Mids (5-2) over the Mountaineers (2-5), Saturday afternoon at Knott Arena in Emmitsburg, Md.  The victory by Navy was the team's fourth in a span of eight days.

"I thought we did a really good job defensively," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis. "We have been trying to hang our hat on guarding in the halfcourt and defensive rebounding the ball.  I thought all of our guys really defended (today)."

The Mountaineers, who won the 2021 Northeast Conference Tournament to represent the conference in the NCAA Tournament, opened the scoring today by making a pair of free throws 32 seconds into the game.  Those would be the only points scored by Mount St. Mary's until 12:40 was left in the half.  Navy ran off 14-straight points during that span to take a 14-2 lead.  

A 7-0 run by Mount St. Mary's culled the margin down to 14-11 with 9:49 showing on the clock.  John Carter Jr. (Sr., Spring Hill, Tenn.) immediately answered with a three-point basket for Navy's first points in nearly four minutes.  A miss by the Mountaineers was gathered in by the Mids, which led to Sean Yoder (Dublin, Pa.) scoring on a fastbreak layup.  A turnover by Mount St. Mary's followed, with Richard Njoku (Sr., Washington, D.C.) scoring for Navy on the other end that made the score 21-11 with 8:23 left in the half.  Greg Summers (Sr., Ocoee, Fla.) soon made one free throw to stretch the margin out to 11 points with just over six minutes still to play.  

The lead would dwindle to only as few as nine points at 22-13 and 24-15, and was stretched to as many as 15 points at 33-18, which was the score at halftime.

Navy shot 50 percent from the field (13-26) in the first half, which included a 9-15 (60%) effort in the team's two-point field goal attempts.  On the other end of the court, The Mount was just 6-28 (21.4%) from the floor overall and 5-19 (26.3) in two-point shots.

The Mountaineers made it a 13-point game twice in the early moments of the second half (33-20, 35-22) before a 7-0 run pushed the Mids out to a 42-22 advantage with 15:15 left in the half.  Navy eventually took a 26-point lead at 52-26.  From there, the margin would remain at least 20 points for all but 2:30 (55-38) over the remainder of the game.

Mount St. Mary's was just 5-19 (26.3%) from the field in the second half.  The Mountaineers scored 11 second-half points from the field (1-11 from three-point range) and 11 second-half points from the free throw line (11-17).  Conversely, Navy was 12-29 (41.4%) from the floor after intermission, scored 27 points from the field (3-8 from three-point range) and was 7-10 from the charity stripe.

Navy ended the game with a 25-55 (45.5%) effort from the floor and held Mount St. Mary's to an 11-47 (23.4%) shooting game.  The Mids nearly made as many three-point field goals (7) as the Mountaineers made total field goals.

Navy's defense forced Mount St. Mary's into made field goal droughts of 7:19 (2 points), 5:12 (3 points), 5:29 (4 points) and 6:05 (3 points).  

"They (Navy players) have heard me say this 1,000 times since they were freshmen," said DeChellis.  "Post defense starts with perimeter defense.  If you aren't going to make it difficult on the pass, then the post defender is out there by himself.  These guys do a good job of getting their hands up and pressuring the ball so the pass to the post is not as easy.

"Offensively it comes and goes.  Defensively, I think we can play the same way every night.  I thought we worked hard going into the Furman tournament.  We went back to basics.  I thought we worked really hard defensively and it carried over throughout the tournament and then a few days ago (a win over Washington, Md.).  I always say, you have to hang your hat on something.  At the end of the day, you have to put your lunch pail on something.  It is impossible to be good at everything every single day.  I have been trying to convince these guys and I think they have figured it out that we want to be good defensively and be good at rebounding."

Navy also won the rebounding contest, 39-32, held a 30-18 edge in points scored in the paint, and won both the turnover (13-16) and points after turnover (15-11) columns in the box score.

Carter scored 18 points in his 27 minutes of playing time.  He was 3-5 from three-point range, 6-10 from the field in all and 3-4 from the foul line.  Joining him in reaching double figures in points were Summers with 11 and Yoder with 10.  The three-guard starting backcourt was a combined 15-32 shooting for the afternoon.  Summers also added a team-high eight rebounds and both he and Yoder dished out five assists.

No Mount St. Mary's player scored in double figures.  

Navy will play host to William & Mary Wednesday night.