Feb. 26, 2004
Box Score
EASTON, Pa. (www.lafayette.edu) - Lafayette suffered its first home loss of the season on Thursday, a 75-71 setback to Navy in Kirby Sports Center.
The loss drops Lafayette (18-8 overall, 9-4 Patriot League) into a tie for third place with American in the league standings. The Leopards and Eagles close out the regular season in Kirby Sports Center on Saturday at 3:15 p.m.
The first half was nearly a mirror image of the season's first matchup between the teams in Annapolis on Feb. 1. In that contest, the Leopards made just 7-of-21 first-half shots and trailed 27-22 at halftime.
On Thursday, the Leopards made just 8-of-26 shots in the first half and trailed 28-22 at the break. The Mids led by as many as 12 points before Lafayette scored the final six points of the half.
Lafayette pulled to within a point on a Mike Farrell lay-in and Winston Davis three-pointer to open the second half, but Navy (4-22, 1-12) immediately answered with five straight to go back up by six.
After Marcus Harley hit a three-pointer to pull the Leopards within a point, Navy scored nine straight points to take a commanding 49-39 lead with 6:48 left.
Lafayette drew within five, but Navy quickly stretched the lead back to nine points. The difference was still nine, 57-48, when Farrell hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to six with 2:13 left.
Navy led by seven, 68-61, with 40 seconds left when Lafayette put together its final comeback attempt. Davis buried a three and scored on a drive to the basket to pull Lafayette within three, 69-66, with 19 seconds remaining. Pat Betley scored five more points down the stretch, but the Mids' Mike Higgins made six straight free throws in the final 18 seconds to seal the win.
Laramie Mergerson led the Midshipmen, scoring a career-high 19 points before fouling out. Higgins, who finished 8-of-9 from the foul line, collected 15 points and eight rebounds in just 15 minutes.
Davis led the Leopards with 20 points and seven rebounds while Harley, who made his first start of the season, shot 4-of-9 from three and finished with 15 points.
