WASHINGTON – Hot-shooting and fourth-seeded Army West Point got going early and never let up, shooting nearly 64 percent from the field to hand fifth-seeded American University men's basketball an 89-66 loss in the 2021 PenFed Credit Union Patriot League Men's Basketball Championship quarterfinals. 

WHAT HEAD COACH MIKE BRENNAN SAID

Overall thoughts on the game

• "They're a good team. They run their stuff, they're solid, they play hard. It's obvious they've played 10 more games than us. Regardless, they shot well and executed on both ends of the court."

On what he's most proud of with this team during this unprecedented season

• "Just getting to this point. Jamir [Harris] makes First Team All-League and plays the least amount of games of anybody else. First Team is a heck of an accomplishment, but doing it in such a short window is even more so. Same with Stacy [Beckton Jr.], he played even less games but still was All-Defense. Johnny [O'Neil] missed two games and was Rookie of the Year. Same with Connor and the All-Academic Team. Just the fact that they were able to continue to keep working throughout all the shutdowns and not practicing. It was a really challenging year mentally, as well as physically because you can't just take two weeks off and come right back and run around. I give our guys credit for sticking with it throughout the entire year since last March. We've had no idea what was going to happen from day-to-day since March. We asked them to make tons and tons of sacrifices and they did. So I give our guys a ton of credit.

On the group that featured seven new faces this season

• "I'm excited about the group. If we can just get in the gym consistently, I feel good about the progress that they all will be able to make."

QUICK NOTABLES

• The Eagles did not have a poor shooting game, and trailed by 18 at halftime despite shooting 50 percent. Overall, they finished at 47.2 percent and hit 11-of-26 from long range.
• Seniors Jamir Harris and Stacy Beckton Jr. led the way with 18 points and 13 points, respectively. 
• Turnovers proved very costly for AU, with 15 of them leading to a 24-9 edge in points off turnovers for the Black Knights.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• American jumped out to an early lead, but after a 15-15 tie six minutes in, Army took control for good.
• An 8-0 run got the Black Knights going, and the Eagles were later scoreless for a four-minute stretch while Army built a 14-point advantage.
• After back-to-back buckets for Matt Rogers and Harris got the Eagles within 11 points at 4:24 of the first half, the Black Knights closed the period on a 10-3 run to take a 47-29 lead into the break.
• Army increased its lead to 25 on two occasions early in the second half to put the game out of reach for AU.
• The Eagles scored seven straight points in just over a minute late in the game to come within 14 points at 3:10, but could get no closer. 
• AU's press led to some open layups for Army in the closing minutes, thwarting any further comeback attempts.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Josh Alexander put up nine points on 4-of-5 shooting, leading AU with eight points at halftime.
• The Eagles got a game and career-high four steals from freshman Colin Smalls off the bench, and a season-high four assists from Connor Nelson.
• Beckton and freshman Johnny O'Neil led AU with four boards apiece, and Beckton also grabbed two steals.

KEEP UP WITH US

• For the latest on American University Men's Basketball, stay tuned to AUEagles.com and follow the team on Twitter (@AU_MBasketball), Facebook (/AU.MBasketball) and Instagram (@au_mbasketball).