ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy men's basketball team held Lafayette to 14-second half points in a 68-44 victory by the Mids (16-8, 9-4 Patriot League) over the Leopards (7-15, 4-7), Monday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

"Really proud of our guys," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "Defensively, holding a team like Lafayette, a team that can really score the ball (averaging 67.0 points per game) to 44 points, 14 in the second half ... I thought we were locked in.  We had a 30-minute walk through at lunchtime and I thought they were locked in and focused."

The game was the final regular season game at Navy for Lafayette head coach Fran O'Hanlon, who is retiring after 27 years of guiding the Leopards.  He holds the Patriot League record for career wins (358), was named the league's coach of the year four times and took three teams to the NCAA Tournament.

"Fran is one of the good guys in the profession," said DeChellis.  "He works at it.  His kids are always well prepared.  You have to be on your toes.  They were playing some zone, back to man, doing some things to try and get us off-kilter a bit.  Fran will be missed in the league.  We sit around the league meetings and when someone has an idea or something comes and we want to talk about it, we always say, 'Fran, what are your thoughts? You've been around and seen different scheduling models whether you play Friday-Sunday or this day and that day, how did it work?'  We will miss him for that, his wisdom.  He is just a good basketball coach.  He is one of the old guard, good basketball coach.  He came up the hard way, he worked his way.  It is nice to see a guy 27 years there; you don't see that anymore.  So you miss that in the college game.  When you think of Lafayette basketball, you think of Fran O'Hanlon."

The teams were tied at 30 through the first 20 minutes of play that saw the lead change hands on six occasions and the score tied three times.  The Leopards went on a 13-3 run to take a 15-9 lead, then the Mids tied the score at 22 with just under five minutes left in the stanza.  

After an exchange of baskets to start the second half, Tyler Nelson (Jr., Charlotte, N.C.) started an 11-0 Navy run with a three-point field goal.  John Carter Jr. (Sr., Spring Hill, Tenn.) followed 90 seconds later by making three foul shots.  A missed shot, offensive rebound and Navy steal ended the next Lafayette possession, and that led to a three-point field goal from Austin Inge (So., Greensboro, N.C.) that made the score 41-32.  Another missed shot by Lafayette was gathered in by Navy, and the Mids converted on the other end when Daniel Deaver (Jr., Falls Church, Va.) scored on a shot from inside of the free throw lane with 14:10 left to play.

Navy soon increased its lead out to 48-36, then Lafayette drew to within 48-40 with 8:50 remaining.  

Greg Summers (Sr., Ocoee, Fla.) scored on a layup for the Mids, then a turnover by the Leopards led to Carter hitting a jumper to stretch the lead to 52-40 with 8:10 left.  The teams exchanged missed shots, then a Lafayette turnover was followed by a dunk from Richard Njoku (Sr., Washington, D.C.).  Lafayette's Kyle Jenkins was fouled on the next offensive opportunity for the Leopards, but he missed both foul shots.  Navy grabbed the second errant attempt, then saw Inge hit a jumper to make the score 56-40 with 6:36 still to play.  

Navy scored the next seven points, as well, to close out a 15-0 run that increased its lead to 61-40 with 3:08 remaining.

The Leopards made 50 percent (12-24) of their field goal attempts in the first half, but connected on just 21.1 percent (4-19) of their shots from the floor in the second half.  Lafayette also was just 5-14 (35.7%) from the free throw line after halftime.

The 14 points scored by the Leopards are the fewest Navy has allowed in the second half of a Patriot League game.  The previous low was 16 points set in 1993.  

Navy shot slightly better in the second half (48.4%) than it did in the first half (43.3%) to end the game with an overall mark of 45.9 percent.  

The Mids scored 40 of their points in the paint –– to 24 for Lafayette –– and accrued a 21-6 edge in second-chance points thanks to a 15-5 advantage in offensive rebounds.

"We had 15 offensive rebounds," said DeChellis.  "That's activity.  Activity usually leads to productivity.  Total team effort.  

"The second-chance points are really important.  We try and shake the trees and get stickbacks.  That's who we are.  We tried to turn them over.  I thought they (Lafayette) did a good job of not letting us turn them over.  Then we started knocking some balls free and getting some baskets.  Again, it was all off of our defense."

Four Mids scored in double figures as Carter totaled 14, Summers and Nelson had 11 points each and Njoku had 10 points.  Additionally, Summers had seven boards, six assists and two blocks and Njoku had six caroms.

Navy now travels to New York State for a Saturday game at Army.  The Star Game between the teams, part of the Star Series presented by USAA, will air at 1:30 p.m. on the CBS Sports Network.