LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Bucknell's Jack Forrest, who leads the Patriot League in scoring, registered 20 of his 24 points in the second half as the Bison (7-13, 4-3) held off the Navy men's basketball team (8-10, 4-3), 71-63, Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion in Lewisburg, Pa.

"Ours kids played hard," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis, "we just didn't play well.  Missed free throws again at critical times, missed some defensive assignments, which really hurt us.  We didn't guard very well in the second half.  (Defense) has been the trademark for this program, defense and rebounding, and we didn't do a really good job of guarding them.  We let their best player score a bunch of points and part of the game plan going in was not let him beat us, and he beat us."

Bucknell's offense had a productive start to the game as it built a 30-15 lead with 4:25 left in the first half.  The Bison were 5-9 from three-point range during that span.  Navy then held the Bison scoreless for over four minutes to allow the Mids to close to within 30-25 and then 32-27 at halftime.

An Austin Benigni triple at the start of the second half made the score 32-30 in favor of Bucknell, then the Bison ran off the next nine points to build a 39-30 lead.  It soon became a 45-34 lead as Bucknell began the second half 3-4 from three-point land and 5-7 from the floor overall to regain the double-digit advantage.  The Bison advantage grew to 15 points on five occasions, including at 57-42 with 8:47 left to play.

"It was 13-7 in the first four minutes of the second half," said DeChellis.  "That was major separation.  We have to be better (at the start of the second half).  We keep talking about it and trying to simulate it in practice.  It is just not carrying over to games.  We are a young team that needs to figure it out, that you have to come out and throw the first punch and not take the first punch."

Navy then started to chip away at the deficit.  Mac MacDonald hit a of three-point field goals on back-to-back possessions to draw the Mids to within 59-51 with 6:27 showing on the clock.  Another empty Bucknell possession was followed by MacDonald drilling a third three-point field goal.  However, there was contact on the play between MacDonald and his defender and MacDonald was whistled for an offensive foul.  Instead of it being a 59-54 game with MacDonald going to the line for the chance to convert a four-play play, the margin remained eight points and Bucknell had the ball.  

The Bison quickly made a three-point shot on the other end to take their lead back to double figures at 62-51 with 5:24 left on the clock.

Navy again fought its way back into the game and a pair of free throws by Donovan Draper made it a 65-59 game with 2:35 remaining.  

The Mids committed a foul on the next Bison possession to send Elvin Edmonds IV to the foul line.  He missed the front end of the bonus with Draper grabbing the carom.  Benigni had his layup attempt on the other end blocked, with Bucknell obtaining possession.  That led to a Bucknell basket to make the score 67-59 with two minutes left.

The margin grew to nine at 69-60 with 78 seconds remaining.  Navy was able to get it to six points at 69-63, but there were only 27 seconds remaining.

The Bison made one free throw on each of two possessions sandwiched around a missed three-point shot by the Mids to end the scoring.

Navy shot just 35.2 percent from the floor for the game while Bucknell shot 61.9 percent in the second half to boost its efforts to 48.9 percent for the 40 minutes.  The Bison also were 10-20 (50%) from three-point range to better the 7-22 (31.8%) effort by the Mids.  Additionally, the Mids were 18-27 (66.7%) from the foul line and the Bison were 15-23 (65.2%).

Navy held a 14-9 edge in offensive rebounds, but Bucknell scored 11 second-chance points to just nine for the Mids.

Forrest was 4-5 from three-point range and 8-10 from the field overall after halftime. 

Benigni, who entered the game second in the league in scoring, totaled 22 points.  MacDonald finished with 12 points and Draper posted his league-best eighth double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Navy returns home Saturday for a 1 p.m. game against Loyola.