Navy men’s basketball doesn’t seem to have found a winning formula this season.

Coach Ed DeChellis wanted to play faster because Navy has tremendous depth. The Midshipmen fulfilled that mandate through four games and averaged 70.2 possessions per game, which is the most in the DeChellis era (2011 to present).

However, playing an up-tempo style resulted in many high-scoring games and Navy gave up 81.5 points per game. DeChellis challenged his team to take more pride in playing defense after the Mids allowed 90 and 86 points in back-to-back losses.

On Tuesday night at Alumni Hall, Navy played at a slightly slower pace and defended better. That still wasn’t enough to produce a win.

Junior forward Amarri Monroe scored 16 points to lead three players in double figures as Quinnipiac held a commanding lead from start to finish in beating Navy, 74-63. Senior guard Doug Young and junior guard Ryan Mabrey had 12 and 11 points respectively for the Bobcats, who beat the Mids for the second straight season.

Graduate student guard Savion Lewis tallied nine points and five assists for Quinnipiac (3-2), the preseason favorite in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Junior guard Sam Krist came off the bench to shoot 4 of 6 from beyond the arc in scoring a career-high 15 points for Navy, which never led in the game. Sophomore guard Jordan Pennick added 12 points for the Midshipmen (1-4), who have now lost three straight.

Navy limited Quinnipiac to 43% field goal shooting, including 29% from 3-point range, for the game. However, DeChellis pointed to the numbers in the second half as the Bobcats shot 50% (11-of-22) from the field and 57% from beyond the arc.

“We again didn’t play well defensively in the second half. “That’s a big deal for us,” DeChellis said.

Monroe and Mabrey hit back-to-back 3-pointers early in the second half to spark a 15-7 run that gave Quinnipiac a 10-point lead, 48-38, with four minutes remaining. The run proved decisive as the Bobcats maintained a roughly double-digit margin throughout the rest of the game.

“You can’t be disappointed like we did in the first five minutes of the second half. Then we went uphill the whole second half,” said DeChellis, who couldn’t believe Quinnipiac scored 15 points in less than five minutes.

“We are just a team trying to learn. Each man tries to learn. That was another learning lesson for us tonight in how we have to come out of the locker room [after halftime],” added DeChellis.

DeChellis was proud the Midshipmen grabbed 17 offensive rebounds, but was disappointed they only translated that into seven second-chance points. Junior center Aidan Kehoe led Navy with a career-high 12 rebounds, with five offensive rebounds. Sophomore reserve forward Jack Medalie grabbed seven rebounds, including three offensive.

“If you told me before the game that we would get 17 offensive rebounds, I would have told you we would score 20 of those points,” DeChellis said. “That was a lot of offensive rebounding. We just don’t get much use out of them.”

Pennick and Krist made corner 3-pointers on consecutive possessions as Navy used a 9-2 run to cut the deficit to five, 54-49, barely midway through the second half. However, the Mids missed three shots on their next two possessions and a transition three-pointer from Monroe quickly pushed the lead back to 10 points.

A layup from Medalie got the Midshipmen within six points four minutes later, but were then outscored 7-2 as the Bobcats took their largest lead by 11 points, 68-57, with less than four minutes remaining.

“We weren’t able to score big goals when we needed to,” DeChellis said.

Navy made the same number of field goals (23) as Quinnipiac, but was overwhelmed at the foul line. The Mids committed 22 fouls and as a result the Bobcats made 22 of 30 free throws. Sophomore guard Khaden Bennett came off the bench to make 7 of 8 foul shots.

“We fouled them too much,” DeChellis said, noting that Navy made just 9 of 17 free throws with Pennick (Archbishop Spalding) going 2-for-7.

Navy hosts Division III Washington College next Monday, then travels to Philadelphia for the Cathedral Classic hosted by the University of Pennsylvania. The Midshipmen will play three games in three days during the event.

“We have to play better individually and shoot the ball better. “We have to execute better and make better decisions,” DeChellis said when asked about the key to turning things around. “We just didn’t play smart at the moment. We made some really bad decisions tonight.”

Young scored seven points to lead a balanced attack as Quinnipiac took a 33-31 lead into the break. Monroe and Otieno each scored six points for the Bobcats, who never trailed in the first half.

Kehoe totaled six points and grabbed five rebounds for Navy, which tied the score for the third time at 29 with 3:12 left in the first half. Krist hit a pair of 3-pointers in scoring six of the Midshipmen’s bench’s 18 points in the first half.

Have a news tip? Contact Bill Wagner at bwagner@capgaznews.com, 443-534-0102 and x.com/@BWagner_CapGaz.