ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Mike Woods scored 11 of his career-high 17 points in the second half to help the Navy men's basketball team (8-9, 4-2) hang on for a 57-53 victory over Army West Point (5-14, 1-5), Saturday afternoon at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

The Mid scored eight of the game's final 12 points.  

"Both teams played really, really hard and were really aggressive," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "The separation was very minimal.  If we make more free throws, maybe we are breathing a little easier at the end of the game.  Credit to both teams; hard-fought game.  It is the way they (Army-Navy games) are.  Sometimes a play here or there is a turning point."

The Mids had a slow start to the game offensively as they made one field goal and scored four points in the first six-plus minutes.  The Mids eventually found a little bit of a rhythm and used a 10-0 run to take a 22-15 lead with just over four minutes left in the half.  The advantage was again seven points at 26-19 before the Black Knights were able to close to within 26-24 at the break.

Navy regained a seven-point cushion at 31-24 in the opening stages of the second half. The team's offense was out of sync for the next few minutes, however, as Army climbed back into the game behind the shooting of Ryan Curry.  He scored 13-straight Army points going back to the end of the first half to draw the Black Knights to within 34-32 of the Mids.  

A Curry free throw soon gave Army a 35-34 lead, then the Black Knights took a 39-36 advantage.  Navy tied the score at 39, with the last two points coming by way of foul shots by Woods.  The teams traded scores over the next few minutes.  Woods soon scored back-to-back field goals for the Mids before a basket and foul shot from Donovan Draper gave Navy a 49-47 lead.  The Black Knights tied the score at 49-49 with a field goal on their next offensive opportunity with just over five minutes showing on the clock.

Each team had two-straight empty possessions, then Woods was fouled while grabbing an offensive rebound.  He made both foul shots to give Navy a 51-49 lead with 3:31 left.  A turnover ended the ensuing Army possession, then Mac MacDonald was fouled while attempting a three-point shot.  He made just one of the three efforts from the line, however, to make the score 52-49 with 2:59 remaining.

Army missed a shot on its next time down the court.  Josh Scovens grabbed the offensive carom, missed the putback, grabbed the board again and was fouled.  Scovens missed the front end of the bonus to keep it a three-point game with 2:33 left to play.  A Curry steal quickly gave the ball back to Army, but it missed two shots before TJ Small was fouled with 1:54 left.  He made both free throws to close the margin to 52-51.

Next, Austin Benigni had his shot blocked for the Mids, but Woods grabbed the offensive board.  With the time on the shot clock dwindling, he found Benigni out by the three-point line.  Benigni's shot again was off the mark, but Draper grabbed the miss and scored on the putback to make it a 54-51 lead with 1:21 left.

Army called timeout with 1:12 on the game clock.  Upon resumption of play, the Black Knights never really had an open look until they dumped it inside to Charlie Peterson who scored on a running layup with one second on the shot clock.  That made it a 54-53 game with 50 seconds still to play.

The Mids called timeout with 44 seconds.  Navy took its time before Benigni started to drive down the side of the lane with five seconds left on the shot clock.  He was fouled three seconds later with 22 seconds appearing on the game clock.  He made the first attempt but missed the second to give the Mids a 55-53 lead.

Army called timeout after grabbing the rebound.  The Black Knights repeated their previous play and sent it inside to Peterson.  He was fouled on his move to the hoop with four seconds left.  He missed the first shot, which led to a Navy timeout.  Peterson intentionally missed the second effort, with Draper quickly snaring the loose ball and being fouled with two seconds still remaining.

Draper walked to the other end of the court and calmly made both foul shots to give the Mids a two-possession lead and close out the scoring.

"We had a big stick-back late," said DeChellis of Draper's offensive board and score.  "I thought the last three or four minutes we made a play or two that helped us win the game.  Really, really proud of our guys.

"Hard game, hard game.  Both teams wanted it.  Physical.  Hard game to officiate.  Everything is hard about it."

Each team shot roughly the same percentage from the field (Navy, 38.8%; Army, 38.0%), three-point line (both at 30.8 percent) and the foul line (Navy, 51.7%; Army, 50%).  Each team made 19 field goals, Army held an 8-4 lead in three-point field goals and the Mids were 15-29 from the foul line while the Black Knights were 7-14.

Navy scored 21 points after the 17 turnovers it forced and Army tallied nine points after the 11 turnovers committed by the Mids.

"We have a lot of new guys who have never played in this game," said DeChellis.  "I was concerned about that going in.  Once we settled in defensively, I thought we were pretty good on defense."

Woods bettered his career high for the second game in a row as he had 16 points Wednesday against Lehigh.  He was 6-8 from the floor and 5-8 from the free throw line. Woods also added six offensive boards -- one shy of tying the record for the most in an Army-Navy game -- as part of an eight-rebound game.  

"That's what Mike does," said DeChellis.  "We were trying to get Mike to play with energy.  He caught it a couple of times around the free throw line and spun to the basket."

"Coach is always harping on me to crash (the offensive boards) hard," said Woods.  "Usually we have two or three crash guys in at a time, so we were applying a lot of pressure on the backboard.  Today happened to the day I had most of them."

Joining him in scoring in double figures were Benigni with 12 points and Draper with 10.  Draper also grabbed nine rebounds, swiped two steals and had one blocked shot.

"Woods had a big game for us," said DeChellis.  "Draper had a big second half.  He made some plays around the basket."

Navy takes to the road Wednesday for a game at Bucknell.