ANNAPOLIS, Md. - In its first season as a member of the Patriot League, the American men's basketball team locked up the regular-season conference title with a 62-50 victory over Navy at Alumni Hall Wednesday evening. American earned the title by way of both its win over the Mids, while getting some help from Bucknell, who knocked off second-place Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. Wednesday.
Navy held the lead for the first 10 minutes of the game, including a 15-11 advantage on a three-pointer from Scott Long (Newbury Park, Calif.) with 11:35 to play in the half. American's outside shooting started to heat up after that as the Eagles closed the half on an 18-8 run, with 15 of their 18 points coming on three-pointers. Nick Boyd drilled three treys for American, with two coming from Vladimir Buscaglia as the Eagles went into halftime holding a 29-23 lead.
American continued its run into the start of the second half, scoring 13 of the first 15 points after intermission and building a 42-25 lead with 15:32 remaining. After Long made a pair of free throws for the Mids, Patrick Doctor made two free throws and a layup on the next two AU possessions to give the Eagles their largest lead of the game at 46-27 with 13:29 left in the contest.
Navy started a comeback late in the game, cutting a 15-point deficit to just six points, 56-50, with the final seven points of the Navy run coming from Jehiel Lewis (Houston, Texas). American stopped any hopes of a final Navy flurry by sinking six-straight free throws in the final 1:51 of the game for the 62-50 victory.
The Eagles were led by Doctor's game-high 19 points on 6-for-8 shooting from the field and 7-for-8 from the charity stripe. Doctor made it a double-double by adding 10 boards. Guards Glenn Stokes and Steven Miles produced 12 points apiece.
Long and junior Mitch Moore (Fairborn, Ohio) led Navy with 10 points apiece. Moore was 5-for-10 from the field, scoring eight of Navy's first 10 points of the contest. Navy's three seniors were limited to just a combined 15 points. Lewis paced the trio with nine points, Jamie Nero (Red Hook, N.Y.) tossed four and Demond Shepard (Albany, N.Y.) added a bucket.
