Eagles Win Patriot Title Outright

AU's Win, Loss by Navy Settle Matter: American 84, Lafayette 72

With less than a minute left in American's 84-72 victory over Lafayette yesterday, the good news began to make the rounds at Bender Arena. From the alumni seats to the students' section, from the scorers' table and finally to the Eagles' bench, word of Navy's loss buzzed through the building.

Everyone knew, it seemed, except AU Coach Jeff Jones.

"I was walking down the hallway and was turning in [to the locker room] and somebody told me," he said. "I knew everybody was happy; I didn't understand that Colgate had won [against Patriot League co-leader Navy]. It just hadn't hit me. I walked in and was a little bit stunned."

Their triumph before 2,432 home fans coupled with Navy's 73-62 defeat in Hamilton, N.Y., allowed the Eagles (18-11, 10-4) to overtake the Midshipmen (16-13, 9-5) on the final day of a bizarre Patriot League regular season. In the process, they claimed first place outright for the first time in six years and seized home-court advantage throughout the conference tournament. A Navy win would have clinched the top slot regardless of AU's result because the Midshipmen had swept the season series with the Eagles.

In Wednesday's quarterfinals, American will host eighth-seeded Holy Cross (15-13, 5-9), the preseason pick to win the league. Second-seeded Navy will welcome No. 7 seed Bucknell (11-18, 6-8), the preseason No. 2 selection.

With the status of the AU and Navy games seesawing all afternoon, the final outcome of the league race did not become clear until late in both contests. Tipping off at the same time, the Midshipmen raced to a 10-point lead while the Eagles struggled to pull away from the No. 6 Leopards (15-14, 6-8).

Events then began to turn in AU's favor. While Navy squandered its five-point halftime lead, Eagles forward Bryce Simon triggered a 15-0 run with consecutive three-pointers as part of his career-high 19 points to help build a 64-49 advantage with about six minutes remaining. Lafayette got within seven late.

"With a couple minutes left in the game, I looked over to the bench and I saw a couple of the players with big smiles on their faces," guard Garrison Carr said. "I knew they couldn't have been smiling that big with the [dwindling] lead we had. I knew something was up. We just wanted to make sure we did our part."

Simon, averaging 6.6 points, scored his team's first eight points as the Eagles built a 33-24 halftime lead. However, sparked by Bilal Abdullah (23 points) and Matt Betley (21), the Leopards scored eight straight to pull even midway through the second half. Simon then ended AU's drought of almost five minutes without a field goal by hitting a three-pointer from the left side and another from the right wing.

"It was big, it was needed, and the amazing thing is, he hit the last three right in front of the bench and at the time we were trying to run a set [play]," Jones said. "All of a sudden Bryce just rose up and knocked it down, and I just kind of looked over at the assistant coaches and said, 'Confidence is a great thing, isn't it?' "

Brian Gilmore, who contributed 16 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals off the bench, followed with a three-point play and, after four free throws by the Eagles, Derrick Mercer (16 points, seven assists) scored in the lane.

Throughout the afternoon, the Eagles tried to avoid being distracted by the Navy score. Said Simon: "You can't think about that because even if they had lost up there and we didn't take care of our business, it's all for nothing. It was about taking care of our business."

But with AU's lead finally secure, no one could ignore the other result -- except Jones, of course.

After he'd been told the other outcome, "I was trying to come up with something good to say and really didn't have anything -- a lot of emotions," Jones said. "Basically all I said was, 'Guys, sometimes less is more -- congratulations.' They started jumping around and celebrating. A lot of times in situations like that, you don't need words."

In the Navy-Colgate game, Kendall Chones had 23 points and 12 rebounds for the third-seeded Raiders (16-13, 7-7), who extended their winning streak to four and ended the Midshipmen's at six. Greg Sprink had 19 points for Navy, which shot 33 percent overall and made 6 of 33 three-pointers.

"Colgate is by far the most talented and most complete team in the league," Midshipmen Coach Billy Lange said, "and they are playing well right now."