State basketball roundup (Jan. 2): Towson men lose fourth straight, 75-72

Steven Santa Ana hit four 3-pointers and finished with 17 points and Dmitri Thompson scored four of his 15 points in the final 27 seconds to help the the host Elon men's basketball team beat Towson on Tuesday night, 75-72.

Tyler Seibring had 16 points on 7-for-12 shooting, and Dainan Swoope added 12 points and six assists for Elon (10-5, 2-0 Colonial Athletic Association).

Swoope hit a 3 and Santa Ana made a layup to make it 68-68 with three minutes left. Towson's Zane Martin and Eddie Keith II sandwiched layups around a 3-pointer by Santa Ana to give the Tigers a one-point lead with 56 seconds to go, but Thompson's bucket 29 seconds later gave the Phoenix a 73-72 advantage. Towson missed a short jumper on the other end and Thompson grabbed the rebound and made both ends of the 1-and-1 with 7.4 seconds remaining. The Tigers' Brian Starr's potential tying 3 bounced off the front of the rim as time expired.

Martin had a career-high 27 points, and Keith scored 10 for Towson (10-5, 0-2), which dropped its fourth straight game.

Navy 78, Lehigh 66: Shawn Anderson was having a miserable outing through 32-plus minutes Tuesday night against Lehigh. Navy's standout swingman was scoreless, shooting 0-for-9 with 7:51 remaining in the game.

However, Anderson was undeterred by those struggles, scoring all 11 of his points down the stretch as the Midshipmen broke open a close game and pulled away to a 78-66 win before an announced 632 at Alumni Hall.

Junior forward George Kiernan scored a career-high 27 points to lead Navy (10-5, 1-1 Patriot League). Junior point guard Hasan Abdullah scored all 17 of his points in the second half for the Mids, who made 20 of 23 free throws.

"Down the stretch, they started to key in on George and Hasan because they were having great games. So it kind of opened up some areas for me, and my teammates kept encouraging me to be aggressive and look to create," Anderson said.

In years past, Anderson might have stopped shooting after starting a game with nine straight missed field goals. As a senior leader and the team's top scorer, the 6-foot-4 guard knows he cannot simply disappear.

"You have to be resilient and you have to keep pushing. You just have to stay patient. There's no reason to get down on yourself. Everyone has bad games and you just have to keep plugging away."

Freshman guard Cam Davis hit some big shots in the second half in adding 14 points for Navy, which outscored Lehigh 25-10 over the final 7:51 after Anderson got going. Davis made a 3-pointer from the corner with 3:03 remaining to spark the game-ending run.

"Cam hit that one three in the corner, which was the dagger," DeChellis said. "He's a tough kid who doesn't flinch. He's a gutty little freshman who plays like he belongs."

Jordan Cohen finished with 17 points to lead Lehigh (6-7, 1-1).

— Bill Wagner, Baltimore Sun Media Group

Army West Point 86, Loyola Maryland 75: Alex King scored 18 points, Matthew Wilson added 15 and the host Black Knights beat the Greyhounds.

Tucker Blackwell scored 13 points, Luke Morrison added 10, and Babacar Thiombane blocked a season-high four shots for Army (8-5, 1-1 Patriot League), which shot 53.6 percent from the field. Thomas Funk had six assists.

Loyola led 37-29 on Sam Norton's free throws, but the Black Knights closed the half on a 14-5 run in which King scored six points and led 43-40 at halftime.

Andre Walker scored 22 points, including five 3-pointers, Isaiah Hart added 16 points and Chuck Champion 15 for the Greyhounds (3-10, 1-1).

Women

Lehigh 66, Navy 63: Quinci Mann scored 21 points to lead the host Mountain Hawks (8-5, 2-0 Patriot League) over the Mids (11-2, 1-1).

Taylor Dunham scored 16 points and Sophie Gatzounas added 12 for Navy, which received a vote in the Associated Press Top 25 poll released Monday.

Army West Point 69, Loyola Maryland 62: Aliyah Murray scored 23 points to lift the visiting Black Knights (8-5, 1-1 Patriot League) past the Greyhounds (2-11, 0-2).

Izzy Therien had 21 points, five assists and six rebounds and Alexis Gray added 14 points for Loyola.