TOWSON, Md. - Navy raced to a 22-point lead then held off a Towson rally to hand the homestanding Tigers an 89-84 loss Wednesday night.
The Midshipmen (2-5) ended a three game skid with the victory. Towson dropped to 1-3 on the year.
Freshman forward J.J. Avila (31 points) and senior guard Greg Brown (20 points) combined for 51 points, at times shooting lights out for Navy. The two were 10 of 11 from the field and 7 of 8 from beyond the arc in the first half. At the 12:36 mark of the opening period Navy had missed just one shot in 13 attempts.
"As soon as they hit their first three shots I turned to my coaches and said - here we go," said Tiger head coach Pat Kennedy. "Some of their shots were guarded, some were not, some weren't guarded tight enough. The fact of the matter is we gave them the opportunity to gain the momentum."
The Tigers, meanwhile, committed turnovers (23 of them) at pivotal times.
Navy had a 22-point lead (47-25) late in the first half and went into the break ahead 52-36 on 60.6 per cent shooting from the floor. Towson trimmed that to single digits early in the second half when the Midshipmen cooled off (25.9 per cent) and looked to be position to complete the rally.
A Brian Morris three-pointer brought Towson to within three (80-77) with 1:19 remaining in the game. But a personal foul plus a technical on Troy Franklin with 55.4 seconds remaining gave Avila four free throw attempts. He sank all four boosting Navy's lead back to 7.
Morris scored again but Avila made his way back to the charity stripe for two more makes. Freshman guard Dre Conner, in relief of Franklin, scored on a layup to cut Navy's lead to six with 13.1 seconds remaining. Josh Brown sank a triple with five seconds left but O.J. Avworo was fouled on the inbounds, ending the scoring with a free throw with one second remaining.
Towson was led by Braxton Dupree with his second double-double, 14 points and 10 rebounds. Franklin netted a team high 18 points and dished out six assists. Morris matched his career high in a Towson uniform with 16 points. Brown came off the bench to contribute 13 points. RaShawn Polk just missed a double-double with 12 points and 9 boards.
Isaiah Philmore, Towson's leading scorer going into the game (18.0), was checked for 7 points.
Towson is back on the court again next Wednesday when the Tigers host Western Michigan in the Towson Center.
