With Harris in foul trouble, guards pave the way for Mids
Navy senior Chris Harris was ready for Wednesday’s game against Holy Cross – too ready. His three steals in the first seven minutes produced a trio of breakaway field goals. But with his aggression came a cost – personal fouls that sent Harris to the bench.
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But even without the Patriot League scoring leader, Navy found a way to win. With O.J. Avworo running the offense, Jordan Sugars hitting big shots, and Harris returning in time to hit the clutch field goal that iced it, Navy claimed an 83-80 victory.
Navy won with the benefit of a fortuitous call, the Mids’ getting a timeout with 15.9 seconds left, when it appeared they didn’t have possession after Holy Cross guard Devin Brown tied up Harris at the top of the key.
Harris took advantage of the reprieve dribbling across the lane and draining a 12-foot fallaway jumper with 11 seconds left and as the shot clock expired, giving Navy an 83-80 lead.
“You guys saw what [the referees] saw, I can’t say anything that,” said Holy Cross coach Sean Kearney of the timeout.
On a night when Harris scored 21 points in 19 minutes, it was the timely contributions of guards Avworo (14 points, 13 assists) and Sugars (21 points) that kept Navy afloat in the second half. In 16 years in the Patriot League, no Navy player had as many assists in a conference game as Avworo did Wednesday.
“He knew we needed it. He’s playing great,” said Navy coach Billy Lange. “I don’t know if there’s a player in our league playing better than he is right now at his role.”
In finding holes in the Holy Cross zone defense, Avworo was motivated after a poor performance last month in a 79-60 loss at Holy Cross.
“I just thought to myself, this is the exact same game that we played against them at their house,” said Avworo. “And last game, I had three turnovers. I was determined not to let that happen to the best of my ability.”
With the win, Navy (13-13, 7-4) keeps pace with conference leader Lehigh (17-9, 8-3), a winner Wednesday over Colgate.
The Mids did it with clutch play at the end. In the last 6 minutes, Navy scored on all eight of its possessions, rallying from a 72-66 deficit, by scoring on their last eight possessions.
Sugars gave Navy the lead, 79-78, with a 3-pointer in front of the Navy bench. With a minute left, Avworo stretched the lead to three with a backdoor cut and layup off a feed from center Alex Newsome (9 points, 3 rebounds).
“That’s my job. When I get in there, I make the defense make a decision,” said Avworo. “If they’re going to stick with Chris Harris and Jordan Sugars, I’ll get an easy layup.”
In trying to sweep Navy, Holy Cross (7-19, 4-7) dominated the boards, 44-26, and was led by forward Andrew Keister (22 points, 14 rebounds) and reserve guard Brown (23 points). When the Crusaders went on a 16-2 run midway through the second half, they turned an 8-point deficit into a 6-point lead. But they couldn’t hold it.
“It was a disappointing end to what I thought was good effort from us. I thought we did enough,” said Kearney. “Our margin of error is so small, we needed one more loose ball, one more stop.”
Notes » Navy also got 10 points and 5 rebounds from reserve guard Greg Brown.