South Padre Island, Tex. (Nov. 24, 2012) --- The Delaware State men's basketball team trailed by 15 points at the half and never recovered in a 63-53 loss to Navy in the South Padre Island Invitational finale for each team today.

The Hornets dropped their fourth straight game to fall to 3-4 on the season, while the Midshipmen snapped a three-game skid to improve to 3-4.

Delaware State hit just seven-of-28 first half shots, including one-of-13 from three-point territory, to trail 35-20 at the break.

The Hornets could get no closer than 10 the rest of the way.

Kendall Gray and Tyshawn Bell led DSU with 13 points each. Gray, who was 6-for-10 from the field, also led all players with seven rebounds and four blocks.

Bell led the Hornets with three three-point field goals.

Tahj Tate had a game-high five assists for the Hornets.

The score was 6-6 when navy began to pull away.

Kendall Knorr capped off an 18-2 run with a three-point shot to give Navy a 24-8 lead with 6:50 left in the first half.

Delaware State hit just one of 11 shots and committed two turnovers during the Navy run.

Navy's Brandon Venturini scored the first nine points of the second half on three three-point shots, the third of which gave the Midshipmen a 44-20 lead with 16:26 left to play.

Venturini led all players with 14 points for Navy. His performance was highlighted by 4-of-6 shooting on three-pointers.

The Hornets answered with a 5-0 run, and pulled to within 44-25 after a follow-up basket by Gray with 13L44 remaining.

After Navy opened up a 48-25 lead, Delaware State responded with another brief spurt.   

The Hornets scored 14 of the next 19 points, capped off by a three-pointer by Bell, to cut the Midshipmen lead to 53-49 with 11:43 left.

Delaware State returns to action on Wednesday (Nov. 28) at Eastern Kentucky.