WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Daniel Deaver (Sr., Falls Church, Va.) and Tyler Nelson (Sr., Monroe, N.C.) combined for 26 points after halftime to match the second-half scoring total for the American (15-13, 7-10) team in a 70-54 victory by the Navy (18-11, 11-6) men's basketball team, Wednesday night at Bender Arena in Washington, D.C.

The win was Navy's sixth road win in a row, seventh-straight victory regardless of site and 10th win in its last 11 games.

The results from around the league tonight means Navy will be either the Nos. 2 or 3 seed in the Patriot League Tournament.  A victory by the Mids Saturday at home against Colgate or a loss by Lehigh at Boston means Navy will be the No. 2 seed.  A loss by Navy and a win by Lehigh drops the Mids to the No. 3 seed.

"I'm proud of our guys," said Ed DeChellis.  "That's six-straight (wins) on the road."

American controlled the glass in the early going and was able to turn 10 second-chance points into 26-16 lead.  Navy answered back with a 10-0 run -- the last six points coming on back-to-back long three-point field goals from Christian Jones (Sr., Bowie, Md.) -- to tie the game at 26-26 with 42 seconds left before halftime.  The Eagles made a layup very late in the half to go into the locker room with a 28-26 lead.

"We didn't play real well in the first half," said DeChellis.  "We gave them too many offensive rebounds and second-chance points.  That's not who we are as a team.  We kind of got that straightened out at halftime."

The Eagles opened the scoring in the second half to take a 30-26 lead, but the Mids ran off the next 10 points to jump in front, 36-30.  Nelson accounted for seven of those points and Deaver tallied the other three.  The lead grew to 43-34, fell to 45-39 and went up to 50-39 following Deaver converting his third three-point play of the second half.

It was a 54-41 lead with four minutes left when the Eagles started to send the Mids to the foul line.  Navy went 14-14 from the charity stripe to keep a lead of at least eight points over the remainder of the game.

"The second half," said DeChellis, "we played much better.  We had better ball movement, better shot selection and down the stretch we made our free throws, kept them off the glass, and I thought we did a good job defensively the whole game."

After shooting 37 percent (10-27) from the field in the first half, Navy made 50 percent (12-24) of its field goal attempts after halftime.  Conversely, American made 42 percent (11-26) of its first half shots and 41 percent (9-22) of its second half attempts.  The Mids made one more three-point field goal than the Eagles (5-4), but Navy was 21-26 (81%) from the free throw line in contrast to a 10-19 (53%) effort by American.

Both teams ended the game with 32 rebounds -- Navy held an 18-13 edge after halftime -- and each scored 17 second-chance points on the night.

American committed nine second half turnovers and 18 for the game while Navy turned the ball over four times after halftime and 12 times in the game.  The Mids held a 22-9 advantage in points scored after turnovers.

Deaver was 6-10 from the field after halftime and made all three of his foul shots to score 15 of his 19 points after intermission.  Nelson was 3-3 from the field, including one three-point basket, and 4-5 from the foul line to record 11 of his 18 points in the final 20 minutes of play.  

"Deaver got the ball around the basket in the second half and made some shots," said DeChellis.  "Tyler did as well.

"I think were trying to play too hard on offense in the first half. We were rushing around and it was like the ball was going to explode when we touched it instead of calming down and relaxing."

Austin Inge (Jr., Greensboro, N.C.) was 6-6 from the foul line to score 11 points, Austin Benigni (Fr., The Woodlands, Texas) was 6-6 from the free throw line to total eight points and Mike Woods (Fr., Upper Marlboro, Md.) had five offensive rebounds to go along with four points, one block and one steal.

Navy's game Saturday against Colgate will tip at 4 p.m. and be televised on the CBS Sports Network.  Navy's senior day ceremony will start at 3:30 p.m.