Navy men's basketball coach Ed DeChellis couldn't have asked for a better Christmas present. He got athletic 6-foot-6 forward Worth Smith back in uniform for the first time in nearly six weeks for Monday night's home game against Towson.
Smith showed everyone what they'd been missing since he went down with a knee injury in the Nov. 14 season opener against Michigan State. Smith, the team's leading scorer last season with an 11.8 average, made all the difference in the Mids' 61-56 victory over the Tigers. He started and finished with a team-high 20 points and a game-high nine rebounds for Navy, which had dropped eight of its first 11 games without the senior star.
"It felt great," Smith said. "It was amazing to be back playing basketball because I've been out such a long time. It's always a struggle watching because you want to be out there and help. You practice all summer with those guys and you want to be out there with them."
Smith's baseline drive and reverse layup with 2:34 left pushed Navy's lead to 54-47, and he grabbed a key rebound at the other end on the next possession. With Navy nursing a five-point lead with a little more than a minute to go, he banked home a layup off a nifty up-and-under move that once again kept the Mids out of danger.
Brandon Venturini added 19 points, providing an outside threat to help open things up for Smith inside.
Two other Mids, sophomore swingman Michael Brown (broken jaw) and junior guard Kendall Knorr (knee), also saw their first action of the season after getting hurt during preseason practice. They combined for four points and four rebounds in 20 minutes, but it was Smith that Navy had missed most.
"It's great to have Worth Smith back," DeChellis said. "He hit big shots, he got a big rebound for us. That's what seniors do, and that's what we've been missing. I thought he played very, very well for his first outing."
Smith's work on the boards enabled the Mids to emerge with a 39-38 rebounding edge over a Towson team (7-5) that ranked ninth in the country in rebounding margin at plus-10.5 per game. Shawn Anderson grabbed seven rebounds for Navy to go with his six points.
"We got out-toughed on the backboards," Towson coach Pat Skerry said.
It also helped Navy that Towson's two main threats — guard Four McGlynn and forward John Davis — never got going. McGlynn, the Tigers' leading scorer (14.2), missed seven of nine shots and wound up with just nine points. Davis, who acame in averaging 10.8 points and 9.2 rebounds, went scoreless with just two rebounds in 12 minutes.
Towson got a huge lift from Byron Hawkins off the bench. He scored a game-high 23 points in 21 minutes, but it wasn't enough to keep the Tigers from their fourth straight loss after a 7-1 start.
Towson made just 19 of 34 from the free-throw line in a foul-plagued game. Navy, meanwhile, connected on 23 of 29.
Smith made his presence felt from the outset. He scored 13 of his points in the first 20 minutes, accounting for almost half of the Mids' total before halftime. Venturini added 12 by the break, which was his average coming into the game.
The Tigers struggled offensively and were fortunate to be trailing by just eight points (32-24) at halftime. They shot 28 percent in the first 20 minutes and further compounded their offensive problems by making just seven of 15 foul shots. That performance continued a disturbing trend for the Tigers. In their three previous losses, they'd shot a combined 24 percent in the first half.
"We were anemic offensively," Skerry said
The combination of Navy's zone defense and Towson's cold shooting helped keep the Tigers scoreless for a key five-minute stretch in the middle of the first half. Navy scored nine straight points in the meantime, all but two by Smith. That spurt turned a 14-12 deficit into a 21-14 Navy lead.
The Mids extended the lead to as many as 11 points in the second half. Towson got within four points a couple of times down the stretch — but no closer.