Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
13-11; 6-7
Lafayette
7-17; 5-8
Army Tripped Up at Lafayette
February 07, 2018 | Men's Basketball
EASTON, Pa. - The Army West Point men's basketball team dropped an 81-54 decision at Lafayette here Wednesday.
The two teams traded baskets early with neither side owning more than a three-point edge through the first eight minutes of play. The Black Knights held the slim 11-10 advantage at the 12-minute mark, but the home team sparked a 32-10 run, highlighted by 10-0 and 9-0 runs over a seven-and-a-half-minute span, to break the game open at 42-21.
The Leopards then stretched their lead to 45-24 at the break, a season-low scoring total in any half for the Black Knights this season. Army also committed their second-most turnovers in the opening 20 minutes with 11 giveaways. Lafayette turned those blemishes into 19 points.
The Leopards continued that strong play and opened the final stanza on an 8-0 run. But Army would not go away responding with a 9-0 run of its own. The Cadets tried to use that rally to continue to cut into the deficit, but weren't able pull any closer than 19 points as the home team held a double-figure lead throughout the rest of the game.
Jordan Fox led Army with 11 points, while Matt Wilson chipped in 10 on 5-of-8 shooting. Wilson added a team-high five rebounds, while Jacob Kessler's three helpers led the team.
ARMY HIGHLIGHTS AND GAME NOTES
- The Black Knights set season lows in points (54), field goal percentage (35.5 percent), 3-point field goal percentage (21.4 percent), rebounds (26) and assists (9).
- Army posted its lowest scoring half of the season in the opening period when it tallied just 24 points.
- Wednesday's game was the first time the Cadets were held to single-digit assists since Feb. 11, 2017 versus American.
- After turning the ball over 11 times in the first half, Army took better care of the rock in the second half with only two giveaways.
- The Leopards made their first 13 attempts from the charity stripe and finished 15-of-16 for the game.
- Lafayette finished 51.9 percent (28-of-54) from the floor and 50 percent (10-of-20) from downtown. Army went 35.5 percent (22-of-62) and 21.4 percent (6-of-28), respectively.
- Parker Fennema scored a career-high five points on 2-of-2 shooting.
- Wilson surpassed the 300-rebound plateau for his career with five in the game.
- The Alexandra, Ky., native's 10-point showing also put him over the 600-point mark in his college career.
- Fox dished out his 100th assist of the season, joining Funk as the only Cadets in triple-digits in that category.
- Sophomore Tommy Funk saw his streak of consecutive games with three or more assists halted at 29 games. That stretch dated back to last season.
- Both teams registered 28 points from inside the paint.
- Lafayette held the edge on points off turnovers (21-16), second-chance points (8-7), fast-break points (10-2) and bench points (28-15).
- There were five lead changes and one tie score.
- Army led for 2:30, while Lafayette was in front for 37:06. The game was tied for 23 seconds.
UP NEXT
- Army welcomes service-academy rival Navy to Christl Arena on Saturday for the teams' annual Star game.
- The contest will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network with tipoff slated for 1:30 p.m.
- The Mids are coming off a 69-34 victory at Holy Cross on Wednesday.
