WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- William & Mary used a late 10-1 run to build just enough separation from the Navy men's basketball team for the Tribe (6-7) to defeat the Mids (3-10), 82-76, Sunday afternoon at Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Va.
"Our kids really played hard, battled and gave ourselves a chance to win the game," said Navy head coach
Ed DeChellis. "We just didn't. We made some crucial mistakes the last four minutes; a couple of defensive errors, missed free throw line blockout -- the ball bounced pretty high and we couldn't get to the ball.
"I thought our guys played pretty well, for the most part. They played hard, I thought they thought we could win and that's really important."
The Tribe, who have starters or key players in their rotation who recently played at Penn State, Providence, Pittsburgh, Brown, Vanderbilt and Cornell, held a slim lead through most of the first part of the opening half. An
Aidan Kehoe three-point play made it a four-point game at 23-19 with nine minutes left in the stanza. William & Mary soon took a 32-22 lead, led by as many as 11 points and went into halftime nursing a 41-33 advantage.
Navy shot a healthy 43 percent from the field in the first half, but William & Mary not only shot 49 percent, the Tribe also had five more makes and seven more attempts than the Mids. Additionally, the Tribe entered today averaging over 11 triples a game this year and they ended the first half with seven three pointers. William & Mary also held a 16-2 lead in fast break points and a 9-3 edge in points after turnovers.
A three-point basket by the Tribe on their first possession of the second half extended the margin back to 11 points. Navy drew the deficit down to six points at 48-42, then made it a one possession game at 51-48 with 14 minutes still to play. It soon became a one-point game when
Carnegie Johnson made a triple to make the score 52-51. Jimwoo Kim followed with a layup to place Navy in front, 53-52. The teams traded three-point baskets and then
Mitch Fischer scored on a move inside of the paint to make the score 58-55 with 10:25 still to play.
The score would be tied at 60-60 when
Donovan Draper first made a pair of foul shots and then drained a three-point basket to give the Mids a 65-60 lead with 6:42 on the clock. William & Mary answered with the next five points to tie the game for the fourth time in the half with just under six minutes still to play. It would again be tied at 67-67 and 69-69, then
Austin Benigni made a pair of free throws to give Navy a 71-69 lead with 3:43 remaining.
William & Mary scored 10 of the next 11 points to take a 79-72 lead with 1:20 left on the clock.
The Tribe tied the game at 71-71 on an offensive board and tipin. The Mids turned the ball over against the press and that led to a three-point basket by Gabe Dorsey to break the tie at 74-71. Kim then had the ball stripped from him on a move through the lane. Chase Lowe was fouled on the other end of the floor. He missed the front end of a bonus opportunity, but Noah Collier snared the high bouncing carom for the Tribe. Lowe would be fouled again and this time he made both attempts to stretch the lead to 76-71 with 2:14 remaining.
Benigni was fouled on a drive to the basket 20 seconds later. He missed the first attempt and made the second to make it a four-point game at 76-72. Navy played great defense on the ensuing William & Mary possession. Forced to scramble late in the shot clock, the Tribe found Caleb Dorsey on the baseline and he drilled the team's 13th triple of the game as the shot clock expired to make the score 79-72 with just 80 seconds remaining.
Each team had an empty possession, then Kim was fouled while attempting a three-point shot with 36.4 seconds remaining. He made the latter two attempts to winnow the deficit to 79-74. Navy fouled Lowe on the ensuing inbounds play with less than one second ticking off the clock. Lowe converted both foul shots to make it a seven-point game.
Jordan Pennick scored on Navy's next possession (81-76), then Lowe made one of two free throws with 15.3 seconds remaining to close out the scoring.
"Give credit to William & Mary," said DeChellis. "They made the big corner three when they needed to, they had a steal when they needed to. We just made some egregious mistakes at really crucial times. It is unfortunate. We have to grow. We have young guys out there trying to make plays, and they made some mistakes.
"We had some mistakes which led to baskets for them. We have to get rid of those. Those are the plays which are costing us the chance to be successful. But the kids kept fighting and played hard. That's a good fiber to have. I am proud of our guys for that. But we didn't make the plays when we needed to and they (William & Mary) did. Give them the credit."
Each team had five players score in double figures. Benigni paced Navy with 16 points, Kim scored 15, Draper totaled 14 points and 7 rebounds, Pennick finished with 12 points and Kehoe not only registered a double-double of 11 points and an equal number of caroms, he also led Navy with 4 assists.
William & Mary led Navy in all four of the five specialty scoring categories, including 17-5 in points after turnovers, 23-5 in fast break points and 23-8 in bench scoring. The Mids led the Tribe 17-11 in second-chance points.
William & Mary ended the game shooting 50 percent from the field and 39.4 percent (13-33) from three-point land. Navy shot 44.4 percent from the floor overall, which included a 43.5-percent effort (10-23) from three-point range. The Mids were 18-24 from the foul line and the Tribe were 7-14.
Navy will be back in Alumni Hall for the first time since Nov. 25 when the Mids open Patriot League play Thursday at 7 p.m. against American.