ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Chance Gladden made a 30-foot basket with six-tenths of a second left to give Boston a 73-72 victory over the Navy men's basketball team Sunday afternoon at Alumni Hall in Annapolis in the semifinals of the Patriot League Tournament. The victory by the fourth-seeded Terriers (17-16), their ninth win in 10 games, against the top-seeded Mids (26-7) advances Boston to Wednesday's championship game at second-seeded Lehigh.
"That's March," said Navy head coach
Jon Perry. "I thought both teams were well prepared. You don't like to be on the losing end of one of those shots. I have been there before. It is not easy to take.
"Really proud of our team. They (Boston) made shots and when the game was on the line Gladden stepped up and made basket after basket after basket."
Navy took an early nine-point lead at 14-5, but Boston answered with the next eight points. The Mids maintained a slim advantage until the Terriers closed the half on a 9-3 run to take their first lead at 36-35. That was the score at halftime.
Michael McNair keyed the rally for the Terriers as he was 4-5 from three-point range and 6-8 from the floor overall in scoring 17 first-half points. Also playing well was Ben Defty, who was 5-6 shooting and scored 12 points.
The Mids started the second half with
Aidan Kehoe scoring two quick baskets to give them a 39-38 lead. It soon became a 47-41 lead for Navy, but Boston tied the game at 50-50.
That was a pattern as each time Navy seeming had a little bit of breathing room, Boston answered. The Mids took a 55-50 lead, but then it was a 57-55 lead and soon the Terriers tied the game at 61-61 with 4:12 remaining. The teams traded field goals, Kehoe made one foul shot and Gladden made a triple to give Boston a 66-64 lead with 2:40 to go.
"Our guys played really hard," said Perry. "They were locked in. We couldn't get three stops in a row in the second half when we needed it."
Kehoe scored after grabbing an offensive rebound, then he forced a steal and fed
Donovan Draper for a layup that placed Navy in front 68-66 with two minutes still to play. After a Boston timeout, Gladden was fouled on a drive to the hoop and his two free throws knotted the game at 68-68 with 1:35 left on the clock.
Mike Woods scored for the Mids after he snared an offensive carom to make it a 70-68 game with 1:12 remaining. A missed shot by Boston was gathered in by Draper. The Mids advanced the ball over halfcourt and called timeout with 35.2 seconds left. When play resumed, Navy kept the ball in the hands of Benigni and his driving layup attempt late in the shot clock bounced around and didn't fall in. Boston picked up the carom with 20 seconds remaining. Gladden eventually scored on a drive of his own with 8.0 seconds left to tie the game.
A Navy timeout ensued, then the Mids again gave to Benigni and he drove to the rim and scored with just over three seconds still to play. Boston quickly inbounded the ball and Gladden shook free from a defender to have an open shot from between halfcourt and the three-point line to account for the final points.
Boston shot 55.3 percent from the field for the game and was 11-24 (45.8%) from three-point land. Conversely, Navy made just 42.9 percent of its field goal attempts and was 2-13 (15.4%) from beyond the arc.
Navy finished with more made field goals (27-26) and free throws (16-23 compared to 11-24), grabbed more rebounds (33-28) and committed fewer turnovers (13-4).
"When they (Boston) make 11 three's, they win," said Perry. "And that last one was their 11th three. If you look at the box score, we had more points off turnovers (17-4), more points in the paint (46-24), more second-chance points (21-6), more fast break points (6-2) and more bench points (13-3). The stats say we should win the game, but it didn't turn out that way for us."
Kehoe notched his 19th double-double of the season and his ninth with at least 20 points as he totaled 26 points and 12 rebounds. He also tied a career-high with five steals. Benigni finished the game with 17 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals.
