January 31, 2015

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Senior Dan Trist led four Leopards in double figures with 23 points to go along with eight rebounds as the Lafayette men's basketball team pulled off an important road victory at Navy on Saturday afternoon, 74-65.

Trist was joined by sophomore Nick Lindner, senior Seth Hinrichs and junior Bryce Scott in double figures with 15, 12 and 10 points, respectively. The win moves Lafayette to 13-8 on the year overall and 5-5 in Patriot League play, and drops Navy to 8-14 overall and 4-6 in conference action. Lindner and Hinrichs tallied five assists apiece, while sophomore Monty Boykins chipped in with four helpers of his own. Trist and Scott led the way on the glass with eight boards apiece.

"I thought we did a good job, defensively, especially in the second half, in a hard-fought game, like every game in the Patriot League seems to be this season," head coach Fran O'Hanlon said. "Dan [Trist] did a great job of scoring around the basket and [Zach] Rufer's steal in the second half really gave us a spark."

The Leopards were extremely efficient on the offensive end, going 28-for-52 from the field (53.8%), 8-for-22 from three-point range (36.4%) and 10-for-10 from the free-throw line (100.0%). It was the first time a Lafayette team has made all its free throws since Jan. 22 of last season against Holy Cross, going 14-for-14 in that contest.

On the other side, Navy's Worth Smith led the offensive attack with 20 points on the night, while Brandon Venturini added 12. The Mids went 28-for-54 from the floor (51.9%) and 8-for-22 from beyond the arc (36.4%). Lafayette won the rebounding battle for the second straight game, ripping down 30 boards compared to 21 for Navy, leading to a 34-24 advantage in points in the paint.

Trist finished six of the first eight points for the Leopards to open the game and a triple on the left wing from Lindner gave Lafayette an 11-8 advantage after the first four minutes. Four more finished off a 7-0 surge for the Maroon and White before nine back from Navy made it 17-15 Mids with 12 minutes left in the half.

An up-and-under from Trist at the 8:30 mark tied the game at 21 and a triple from Scott on the next possession gave the edge back to Lafayette, 24-21, with less than eight minutes to play. The Leopards continued that success as a triple from senior Joey Ptasinski on the left wing with 4:53 to play in the half put the lead at seven, 30-23.

Lafayette worked its advantage to as many eight, but a triple and a bucket off the bench from Navy's Zach Fong brought the Mids back within three at 37-34 with less than a minute to go in the half. A Trist three-point play with 2.9 seconds left sent the game into the break with Lafayette on top, 40-37, just its second halftime lead in 10 Patriot League games.

Lafayette came out of the break with five straight, including a triple from Hinrichs, but Navy answered with a pair of buckets from Tilman Dunbar and Smith as Lafayette moved its lead to 47-41 after two minutes. An outside shot went down for Venturini at the 16:30 mark to bring the Mids within one at 47-46 and a Will Kelly tip-in at the 15-minute mark gave Navy its first lead of the half at 48-47.

Navy continued to hold the edge over the next five minutes as a feed from Venturini set up an Edward Alade dunk at the 10:01 mark, forcing a Lafayette timeout with the visitors trailing, 60-56. However, with 8:30 to play, Rufer jumped a swing pass and finished on the run-out to move the Leopards back in front, 61-60.

Lafayette used an 8-1 run over the next four minutes, finished off by another Ptasinski three, to move its edge back out to seven at 68-61. With 46.5 seconds remaining, Dunbar finished with a floater over the outstretched hands of Lindner and Hinrichs to cut the lead to three at 68-65.

Lindner made both ends of a one-and-one to push it back to 70-65, while Scott and Ptasinski also converted on both of their free-throw opportunities down the stretch as Lafayette pulled off a much-needed 74-65 victory on the road.

The Leopards return home to Kirby Sports Center on Wednesday, hosting Bucknell at 7 p.m.