After struggling to a 1-5 start, the Navy Midshipmen have begun to hit their groove, and knocked off George Washington, 64-57.
Navy's leading scorer last season, Jordan Sugars, came off the bench in his first game back from injury and appeared to be back to 100 percent health. He led the Midshipmen in scoring, three pointers and rebounding in his first game back. He also ended up leading Navy in minutes played, despite coming off the bench.
Sugars dominated the stat sheet, but Navy got other key contributions from Romeo Garcia and O.J. Avworro who each chipped in four assists and three rebounds in the victory.
The win puts Navy at 4-6 on the season. After two games on the road this week against Coppin State and Mercer, who have a combined four wins and RPI's under 280, Navy doesn't play another road game until January 12. After a rough start to the season, the Midshipmen can, well, right the ship as face a more favorable schedule over the next month.
The forecast isn't as sunny for the Colonials. For the second time in less than a week, George Washington fell to a local opponent, and in both games, woeful outside shooting was one of the main issues. After shooting 3-19 from beyond the arc against George Mason, the Colonials shot 3-22 against the Midshipmen. In their last two games, they've shot 14.9 percent from the field and are shooting a dismal 31.5 percent for the season.
Next, they'll have to prepare for a cross-country road trip to face Oregon State on the 18th. After keeping things local for the early part of their season, they must prepare for their longest road trip of the season. The good news is Oregon State has not been impressing anyone lately, falling to Seattle, Texas Southern and Utah Valley this season. On top of that, the Beavers are only shooting 29.5 percent from beyond the arc, so the Colonials still have a good shot at making their trip to the West Coast productive.