ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– In one of the lowest scoring games in the 98-game series history between the teams, the Navy men's basketball team (14-7, 7-3 Patriot League) had just enough offense to defeat American (6-14, 2-6), 47-45, Saturday afternoon at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

"I thought we did a really good job of guarding American," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "We defended pretty well, and we rebounded.  We gave ourselves the chance to win."

Navy slowly scored the first six points of the game as the Eagles didn't score for the first 4:17 of the afternoon.  The Mids soon took a 10-point lead at 19-9, reached what would be its largest lead of the game at 27-15 and went into halftime up 27-17.

The Mids took 11 more shots from the field than the Eagles did in the first half (32-21).  That was due to Navy holding advantages of 11-6 in turnovers forced and 9-2 in offensive rebounds.  However, the Mids had leads of just 8-6 in points after turnovers and 6-2 in second-chance points.  Those figures resulted in Navy making 12 field goals and American seven.

American scored the first four points of the second half, but Navy answered with a 6-0 run to match its largest advantage at 33-21.  It was a 35-25 Navy lead after Jaylen Walker (Jr., Allen, Texas) made a jumper with 14:13 showing on the clock.  It would be nearly eight minutes before the Mids made another field goal and during that span the Eagles drew to within three points at 38-35.  Finally, John Carter Jr. (Sr., Spring Hill, Tenn.) made a basket to end the drought and push the lead out to 40-35 with 5:31 left to play.

Two more free throws by American, followed by a dunk from Stacy Beckton Jr. and very quickly it was a one-point game at 40-39 with 3:59 showing on the clock.

Navy missed a shot on its next trip down the court, then forced American into a miss that was grabbed by Carter.  Walker missed a three-point attempt, but Carter grabbed that carom, as well, and went right back to the basket and scored to make it a three-point game, 42-39 with 2:49 left.  Another missed shot by the Eagles was snared by Carter.  He would miss a shot on the ensuing Navy possession, with Walker being the one to grab this offensive rebound.  He too scored on a putback to stretch the advantage to 44-39 with 2:12 remaining.

Beckton was fouled on the other end of the court, but he made just one of his two free throw attempts.  A missed three-point shot by the Mids was grabbed by American, and the Eagles converted when Matt Rogers was fouled and made both free throws to winnow the margin down to two points at 44-42 with 63 seconds still to play.

The Mids put the ball into the hands of Carter.  He slowly backed his way into the lane before being whistled for an offensive foul when making his move to the basket with 37.2 seconds left.  The Eagles inbound the ball, advanced it over halfcourt and called timeout with 32.9 seconds remaining.  

Navy's defense forced American to take time off the clock before the ball went into the hands of Colin Smalls, who attempted a shot from deep inside of the lane that missed as he was surrounded by Richard Njoku (Sr., Washington, D.C.) and Walker.  Teammate Rogers had a tip that was contested by Walker and also missed, then Njoku grabbed the ball and quickly passed it to Carter, who was fouled with 16.2 seconds left.  Shooting the bonus, Carter made both foul shots to make the score 46-42.

American wasted no time in rushing the ball down the court.  The Eagles gave it to Beckton, who drained a three-point shot with 9.5 seconds left.  The officials stopped the game to check and see if it was a three-point shot or if his foot was on the line.  The review showed that both of his feet were behind the line to make it a 46-45 game.

When play resumed, Carter inbound the ball to Patrick Dorsey (Jr., Raleigh, N.C.), who was fouled with 8.3 seconds left.  Also shooting the bonus, he made the first attempt but missed the second.  Johnny O'Neil grabbed the rebound for the Eagles and gave it to Beckton at about the spot where Dorsey had just stood for his foul shot.  He quickly advanced the ball, staying in the middle of the court the entire time.  As he accelerated toward the Navy basket at the free throw line on the American end of the court, Dorsey reached in and caused the ball to bounce off of Beckton's leg.  It careened off of the hands of Navy's Greg Summers (Sr., Ocoee, Fla.) and into the hands of American's Elijah Stephens, who picked it and drove toward the basket via the baseline.  He was unable to gather it in enough to attempt a shot before the buzzer sounded.

Navy was just 6-23 (26.1%) from the field in the second half, including a 0-9 effort from three-point land.  The Mids were 1-18 from beyond the arc for the game and made 32.7 percent of their shots for the afternoon.  Navy also committed nine second-half turnovers to bring its total for the game to 15.

American was 8-18 (44.4%) from the floor after halftime and shot 38.5 percent for the game.  Beckton was 6-9 from the field, including 2-4 from three-point range.  The rest of the team was 9-30 (30%) from the floor and 0-6 from three-point land.  American also took better care of the ball in the second half as it committed seven turnovers in the stanza to end the game with 18.

"We turned the ball over too many times," said DeChellis. "We took the ball out of our hands with offensive fouls.  

"We have to make some shots in this building.  You can't go 1-18 (in three-point shots) and expect to win.  You have to make open shots, you have to make free throws, you have 15 offensive rebounds and you have to put some of them back into the hole or get the ball out of there, swing it and do something else."

The last time the teams combined for fewer points was a 39-24 victory by the Mids on Jan. 11, 1933.  On only two other occasions since that game have the teams combined for fewer than 100 points (94, Feb. 20, 2013; 97, Feb. 18, 1976).

Navy also held a 15-2 edge in offensive boards –– 10-2 lead for the Mids in second-chance points –– and a 38-27 advantage on the glass overall.

Carter ended the game with 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals.  He was the lone Mid to score in double figures, a mark Walker just missed by scoring nine points.

Beckton scored 19 points to lead all players in the game.

Navy now goes on the road for its next two games.  That week begins with a Wednesday night game at Lehigh and ends with a Saturday game at Loyola.