OPENING TIP
* Lafayette is eyeing the start of a new winning streak when it returns to Kirby Sports Center on Wednesday for a battle with Army. The Leopards are coming off a tight two-point road defeat at Navy on Saturday, while the Black Knights have won their last two against Holy Cross and Loyola.
* The Maroon and White have lost just two games on their home court in 2019-20, carrying a 6-2 home record into Wednesday's contest. The Leopards losses came at the hands of Delaware on Nov. 16 and Bucknell on Jan. 5.
* Senior Myles Cherry is coming off the best performance of his career, scoring a career-high 22 points on 9-of-10 from the field with seven rebounds in the Navy loss. 

LAST TIME OUT
Lafayette battled through a tough shooting performance at Navy on Saturday evening to head to the final stretch even, but the Mids' Cam Davis sunk the winning bucket from the top of the key with nine seconds to play to send the Leopards to a 68-66 road defeat in Annapolis, Md.

Despite Lafayette's top-four shooters going a combined 2-for-17 from beyond the arc on the day, the Leopards remained in the game behind a career-high 22 points from senior co-captain Myles Cherry, who gave the Leopards the 66-65 lead before Davis' dagger. Freshman Leo O'Boyle also provided a major source of offense, scoring 15 of his season-high 18 points on 5-of-6 from three-point range in the first 20 minutes.

The loss dropped the Maroon and White back to .500 in Patriot League action at 3-3 through the first third of the conference campaign, faling to 11-6 overall. Navy improved to 10-7 this season with a 4-2 mark in conference play.

Davis was sensational for the Mids, finishing with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-17 from the floor and 5-of-9 from three-point range. The junior added seven rebounds as well, pacing a 42-36 advantage for the home side on the glass.

Junior Justin Jaworski's 64-game streak with a three-pointer came to a close as he struggled from the field the majority of the night, finishing with six points on 2-of-11 shooting and a 0-for-7 tally from distance. Sophomore Tyrone Perry had a chance to tie the game at the line with less than three seconds to play, but his first fell off the back rim, forcing an intentional miss on the second that unfortunately didn't result in a buzzer-beating chance.

LAST MEETING
Lafayette controlled the game for 25 minutes on Feb. 26, 2019 at Kirby Sports Center, but couldn't close out the second half as Army came back and outlasted the Leopards by a 69-63 final.

The Leopards, ahead by four at the break, stormed out of the halftime locker room with a 12-4 run that put the lead at 12, 45-33, with 16:26 left. But that momentum ended there as the offense went cold at the 15-minute mark and Army scored 33 of the game's final 48 points to complete out the comeback.

Eighteen turnovers with nine coming in each half were a big story in the game as Army scored 17 points off those takeaways and led 8-2 in fast-break points. The Black Knights also got 41 of their 69 points from their bench as Jordan Fox and Tommy Funk, two of the team's top three scorers, were held to a combined seven points on the day.

Alex Petrie had his best game of Patriot League play, scoring a game-high 20 points on 6-of-9 from the field and 3-of-4 from three-point range. Classmate Justin Jaworski chipped in with 15 points to go along with a career-high six rebounds, also finishing 3-of-4 from beyond the arc on the day. E.J. Stephens had one of his better games of his sophomore campaign, scoring 10 points on 2-of-4 from distance.

THE SKINNY ON THE BLACK KNIGHTS
Army, picked to finish sixth in the Patriot League Preseason Poll, has righted the ship after a tough start to Patriot League play, sitting at 7-10 overall and 2-4 in conference action. The Black Knights los four straight to open conference action, but snapped a five-game losing streak with a road win at Holy Cross on Thursday and followed that up with an 81-80 victory at home over Loyola on Saturday. Head coach Jimmy Allen is in his fourth year the helm, carrying a 46-66 mark at West Point into Wednesday's matchup.

Tommy Funk, one of the Patriot League's top players throughout his career, leads three Army players in double-figure scoring at 14.6 points per outing, and all of the Patriot League in assists at 6.5 helpers per contest. Matt Wilson adds 14.6 points and  7.8 rebounds (second in the Patriot League) per night, while Lonnie Grayson rounds out the major sources of offense at 10.8 points per contest. 

O'BOYLE RULES
Freshman Leo O'Boyle has hit his stride since entering conference play, averaging 6.5 more points in league contests than he did over the non-league slate. O'Boyle has been the biggest beneficiary of the transfer of Isaac Suffren in terms of minutes, up to 14.1 per outing in Patriot League contests. The rookie is putting up 8.0 points per game through six conference contests, including a season-best 18 points on 5-of-6 from beyond the arc at Navy and a team-high 14 points on 5-of-9 from the field and a season-high six rebounds in the win over Loyola on Jan. 11. 

O'Boyle isn't the only Leopard to step up his game once the conference schedule arrived as senior co-captain Lukas Jarrett and junior E.J. Stephens have each upped their production in league play. Stephens is up to 12.0 points per game after averaging 10.8 in the non-conference slate, while Jarrett went from 8.5 to 9.4 points per outing at the start of the new year.

CHERRY ON TOP
Senior Myles Cherry has picked his senior season to record the best productivity of his career, averaging 11.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game with five double-doubles this season after just three combined over his first three seasons on College Hill. Cherry scored 14 points in each of the Leopards' games against Columbia and St. Francis Brooklyn and added 11 and 12 rebounds, respectively, in the two contests. He added 15 points and 10 rebounds in the win over FDU and 12 points and 10 boards at Sacred Heart and Loyola, respectively. 

In the last time out at Navy, Cherry had his best offensive game in a Leopard uniform, scoring 22 points on 9-of-10 from the floor,adding seven rebounds in the two-point defeat. The Newcastle, Australia native sits atop the Patriot League rankings in field-goal percentage, converting from the floor at a 67.2 percent clip. 

START A NEW STREAK 
Following a 0-for-7 effort at Navy, junior Justin Jaworski's streak of 64 straight games with a three-pointer came to a close. That number was good enough for the second-longest active in the nation at the time, sets a Patriot League record and is the fifth-longest in NCAA history. ​​​​​​​

Jaworski leads the Leopards and is second in the Patriot League in scoring this season at 17.2 points per game. The junior also sits in the top pair in the Patriot League in free-throw percentage (2nd, 89.1) and threes per game (2nd, 2.5).