BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- Five Lehigh players scored in double figures as the Mountain Hawks (7-13, 4-5) made a season-high 12 three-point field goals to defeat the Navy (8-12, 4-5) men's basketball team, 77-65, Wednesday night at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa.

"We didn't guard Lehigh on the perimeter tonight," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis. "There are times when we get beat inside and we were trying to take that away from Lehigh, and they made all of their three-point shots tonight.  We stopped short on close outs (and) we didn't guard them the way we had hoped to guard them.  They made 12 threes; that's 36 points and we can't keep up to that pace.

"Our kids fought and they did some good things, just not enough to win.  We have to find a way to win."

Lehigh held a 15-13 lead before going on a 15-2 run to open up a 30-17 advantage with just over four minutes to play in the half.   The Mountain Hawks were 4-4 from three-point range and 5-8 from the field overall during the run.  Navy made it an eight-point game late in the half before a Lehigh triple just before the end of the stanza pushed it back to an 11-point difference at the break.

Lehigh, which entered the game averaging 6.8 three-point field goals a game this season, finished the first half 8-16 from beyond the arc to build the 35-24 lead at intermission.  On the other end of the floor, Navy made 10 total field goals in the half and was just 1-10 from three-point land.  

Mitch Fischer was 5-6 from the field in scoring 13 first-half points for the Mids.  That tied his career high effort for a game.

Lehigh quickly scored on each of its first three possessions of the second half to extend its advantage to 41-24 less than 90 seconds into play.  

"Coming out of the locker room at the start of the second half," said DeChellis, "they scored six-straight points when it was an 11-point game  All we talked about in the locker room was getting a stop, getting a score and getting another stop, getting a score and a stop.  It was the exact opposite."

The Mountain Hawks took a 58-37 lead with 12 minutes left on the clock.  The Mids whittled the gap down to 10 points at 65-55 following a basket by Fischer at the 4:22 mark.  Lehigh immediately scored on the other end and led by double figures over the remainder of the game.

The Mountain Hawks, who were 2-14 from three-point range in Navy's 71-69 win two weeks ago in Annapolis, connected on 12 three-point field goals to better their previous season high of 10.  They made 43 percent of their three-point attempts for the game and shot 46 percent from the field overall.  Navy was 6-19 from long range (31.6%) and made 37.7 percent of its total attempts from the floor.

Lehigh won the rebounding contest by one carom, 36-35, with the Mids holding a 12-9 lead in offensive boards.  Navy also was on the positive end in turnovers as it committed 11 and forced 14.

Fischer tallied 26 points on 9-13 shooting from the floor, including a 1-3 effort from outside of the three-point line, and a 7-8 showing from the foul line.  He also shared the team lead in rebounds with seven.

"Mitch did a great job for us," said DeChellis.  "He played well inside. We fed him.  He did a nice job scoring around the basket."

Austin Benigni added 14 points and four assists while Austin Inge totaled 10 points and five rebounds.

Navy will play Saturday at Colgate in a noon game that will be televised by the CBS Sports Network.