Navy convinces its coach

Navy coach Billy Lange had his doubts yesterday whether his team would win any game this season, much less its BB&T Classic debut.

Then came the start of the second half and a run that put the Midshipmen in charge in an 82-73 victory over Howard at MCI Center. The Mids scored 16 straight points to take a seven-point lead, then continued to shoot well and dominate the boards.

“At times we looked like a team that was unsure if we were going to be able to win a game,” said second-year coach Lange, whose team overcame its largest deficit to win in his tenure. “I was very happy in the second half that our guys responded to a not so great first half and came out and played really hard on defense and rebounding.”

The Bison (0-4), who were trying to end a 20-game losing streak and win for the first time under new coach Gil Jackson, led 38-29 at halftime. Navy pulled within four before Cliff Colbert and Kaleo Kina made back-to-back 3-pointers.

Kina set up Colbert’s 3-pointer by driving through the lane and sending a pass to the right wing, but he finished with just three assists to go with 11 turnovers. The Mids (1-4) turned the ball over 30 times in the game but won anyway after a second half in which they shot 55 percent from the floor (16-for-29) and outrebounded the Bison 27-11.

For the game, Navy made 11 of 20 3-pointers (55 percent). After the two that gave the Mids a lead with 17:12 left, Adam Teague hit another from the left baseline. A layup by Matt Fannin gave Navy a 45-38 advantage.

“Our guys just didn’t know how to stop the run and get baskets when we needed them,” Jackson said. “We weren’t playing together.”

Filling in for injured sophomore guard Corey Johnson, freshman Colbert led the Mids in scoring (16) for the second consecutive game. He had 22 on Friday in an 86-73 loss at Penn in his first college start. Johnson’s injured left knee will be re-evaluated early next week.

David Hooper and Greg Sprink each contributed 12 points for the Mids.

“We weren’t mad at halftime, but we were disappointed,” Hooper said. “We didn’t put our heads down. A nine-point deficit in college basketball can be turned around.”

For Howard, Darryl Hudson went 11-for-16 at the foul line and scored a game-high 19 points. Five-foot-6 point guard Louis Ford added 16 points, giving the Bison their first two scoring performances of more than 13 points this season.

Like Navy, Howard was making its first appearance in the BB&T Classic, which went from a four-team format to a local triple-header this year. The game was the first between the Mids and Bison.

With a 4 p.m. tipoff on a snowy Monday, only a couple of hundred fans were in the arena at tipoff. Howard, though, was prepared for the start of the game. The Bison took a 35-26 lead on a layup by Hudson before Teague and Ford exchanged 3-pointers.

“We ran the floor pretty well and just did the things that we were supposed to do,” Hudson said of the first half. “That was something that we weren’t able to do toward the end of the game.”

George Mason 75, American 35

The Patriots (4-2) scored the first 16 points of the second game and went on to hammer the Eagles (0-6) for the most lopsided result in the 11 years of the event.

George Mason was up 37-12 at halftime, with senior guards Tony Skinn (all 15 of his points) and Lamar Butler (11 of his game-high 23) leading the way. American, led by Jordan Nichols with 10 points, made just 23 percent of its field goals.

“Our kids were very focused,” Patriots coach Jim Larranaga said. “I was very, very pleased with our defensive effort from start to finish.”

California’s 78-45 rout of Mississippi State in 1996 had been the biggest BB&T blowout. The Patriots had been 0-2 in the event, and this was American’s first appearance.