WORCESTER, Mass. –– Three big runs of points in the first half allowed the Navy (8-4, 1-0) men's basketball to lead by double figures for the last 30 minutes of a 70-56 victory by the Mids over Holy Cross (2-11, 0-1), Saturday afternoon at the Hart Center in Worcester, Mass.  The game served as the Patriot League opener for both teams.

"The team was really focused right from the opening tip," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis, whose Mids now have the longest active winning streak in Patriot League openers with four-straight victories.  

Navy first went on a 9-0 run behind three-point field goals on three-straight possessions from John Carter Jr., a second triple by Carter and then Tyler Nelson (Jr., Monroe, N.C.) to jump out to an 11-2 lead.  The Mids would soon need less than two minutes of clock time to go on a 10-2 run and build a 27-12 advantage.  Finally, Navy would close the half on a 13-1 run to take a 42-20 lead at intermission.

Six of Navy's 13 made field goals in the first half came from three-point land as the Mids shot 40.6 percent from the floor and 54.5 percent from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes of play.  Defensively, the Mids held the Crusaders to a 6-21 (28.6%) effort from the floor in the first half.  The Navy defense also forced 11 turnovers while its offense committed just four turnovers.  That led to the Mids holding a 12-0 edge in points scored after turnovers.  Navy also held a 17-7 lead in bench points and a 9-2 advantage in second-chance points.

Carter was 3-3 from the field in the first half, with all of those attempts coming from three-point range, and added one free throw to score 10-first half points.  Jaylen Walker (Jr., Allen, Texas) was 4-5 from the floor in scoring nine first-half points and Greg Summers (Sr., Ocoee, Fla.) posted eight points before halftime.

"John really got us going," said DeChellis, "and we had great bench play, which was tremendous."

The margin between the teams hovered between 17 and 22 points in the early part of the second half until the Crusaders closed to within 15 at 56-41 with 9:41 left on the clock.  Gerrale Gates scored eight-straight Holy Cross points to narrow the gap.  Austin Inge (So., Greensboro, N.C.) answered on the other end with a jumper for Navy's first points in 100 seconds, then Nolan Dorsey, whose brother, Patrick, was sitting on the Navy bench, scored for the Crusaders to make the score 58-43 with 8:59 showing on the clock.

Walker scored on Navy's next offensive opportunity, then promptly stole the ball to end the ensuing Holy Cross possession.  After a Holy Cross foul and the under-eight minute media timeout, Walker made another basket to push the advantage out to 62-43 with 7:57 remaining.  It was a 66-46 game with just over six minutes still to play when a 10-2 run by the Crusaders allowed them to close to within 12 points at 68-56, but there was only 1:40 showing on the clock at that point in the contest.

Navy shot a higher field goal percentage in the second half (47.8%) than it did in the first, but so too did Holy Cross (56.0%).  The Mids ended the game shooting 43.6 percent to narrowly edge the overall mark of 43.5 percent posted by the Crusaders.  Navy was more comfortably on the better end of both the rebounding (32-28) and turnovers (17-10) statistics.  The Mids additionally led the Crusaders in points after turnovers (14-5), second-chance points (11-4) and bench points (27-18).

Summers scored 12 second-half points on 3-4 shooting from the field and a 6-8 effort from the foul line to end the game with 20 points.  He was 12-15 from the free throw line for the game to record his first 20-point game of the season and the fifth of his career.  Summers also contributed five rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block.  

"Greg was very aggressive with taking the ball to the basket," said DeChellis.

Walker was 6-9 from the field in scoring 13 points and also snared a career-best nine rebounds on the afternoon.  Joining Summers and Walker in double figures was Carter with 12 points.

Navy will be in Alumni Hall for two league games this week, with the first being a Tuesday night contest against Boston University.