Behind senior Vlad Moldoveanu's 28 and Nick Hendra's 11 points, the men’s basketball team defeated the Navy Midshipmen 69-65 in their last regular season home game.
The win gives the Eagles their third 20-win season in the last four years.
"Twenty's good, hopefully on Saturday it can become 21,” Head Coach Jeff Jones said. “I thought Vlad was absolutely ready to go, I thought Nick Hendra and Troy [Brewer] battled the whole way."
AU avenged an early season, 72-53 loss to Navy in Annapolis a month earlier. Moldoveanu wasted no time asserting himself on offense achieving his tenth 20 point game of the season, shooting 7-13 from the field.
But Vladwas not satisfied with the 11 point margin of victory.
"To be honest I wanted to win by 40," Moldoveanu said. "For me personally it wasn't about senior night, or my last regular season home game, it was really about getting these guys back for what they did [in Annapolis]. “
Moldoveanu grabbed six rebounds to go along with his 14 first half points as AU stretched their lead as much as 14 with less than five minutes to play in the first half. Troy Brewer shot three for five from behind the arc and freshman Tony Wroblicky chipped in four point and four rebounds after Patriot League leading rebounder, Stephen Lumpkins, was sidelined for most of the half with foul trouble. Navy’s leading scorer, Jordan Sugars, was able to cut the lead down to single digits with his 10 first half points and AU only led by 9 going into the break, 34-25.
But in the second half, the Midshipmen would not go away. After Moldoveanu converted a free throw on an and-one play, Navy's shot selection turned into long-range 3-pointers and head coach Billy Lange applied a full court pressure defense. Even when their second leading scorer, freshman J.J. Avila fouled out with 8:30 remaining in the game, Navy's Greg Brown and O.J. Avworo hit three straight 3-pointers to cut AU’s 12 point lead to a 56-51 score with 7:33 remaining.
Despite AU’s back-to-back trips to the foul line, Brown and Avworo kept attacking the basket and eventually cut the lead down to a two possession game. The two combined for 25 points. However, with over two minutes left in the ballgame, Hendra stepped up for the Eagles knocking down two straight 3-pointers to stretch the lead back to double-digits.
"As far as the end of the game goes, I hit a couple shots, it's not the first time I've hit a couple shots, they just went in," Hendra said.
Jones was impressed at the approach the senior took in crunch-time.
"Up to that point he had one field goal and Vlad was trying to do too much,” Jones said. “No one else wanted to step forward, so for Nick to be willing to step to the forefront like that is big. The first one was huge and put us in a good position and obviously the second one iced the game."
AU was able to hold off Navy and seal the 69-58 win behind 11 for 21 3-point shooting, the most converted by the Eagles this season. The Eagles also shot more than 50 percent from the floor, despite the 21 total turnovers.
The Eagles will close out the regular season Saturday against Lafayette before the quarterfinal match of the Patriot League tournament March 2 at Bender Arena.
"We're playing to win, we're not resting anybody or any of that nonsense," Jones said. "I fully expect them to be ready to play, there's no reason not to. You play the game to win."
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