BALTIMORE, Md. -- Coppin State forced the Navy men's basketball team into a season-high 20 turnovers as the Eagles (1-12) defeated the Mids (3-9), 68-60, Saturday afternoon in Baltimore, Md.  

Coppin State scored 24 points after those turnovers and Navy scored 11 points after the 14 turnovers committed by the Eagles.

Coppin State had dropped games this season to, among others, Wake Forest, Rider, Virginia, Miami (Fla.), George Mason, Saint Joseph's, North Carolina State and Penn State.

"This is a very, very disappointing loss for us," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "It is not just because we lost the game, but how we lost it.  We lost the game because we turned the ball over.  We talked with this team for three days to have game focus and practicing with game focus.  This is the pre-Christmas game when everyone wants to get home, and it comes after finals.  But we have no excuse for that.  We had 20 turnovers, and that's the game.  They scored 24 points off our turnovers.  That's something we had been pretty good with up until this game.  We turned it over a bit at Virginia Tech, but that's a higher level game. This one, we just the ball over and gave them the ball.  And we didn't make many shots."  

The first half saw the score tied six times and the lead change hands seven times.  The Mids were held scoreless in the last four minutes as Coppin State scored the final six points to take a 28-22 lead at the break.

Navy committed eight turnovers and forced seven in the first half, then the Mids turned the ball over five turnovers in the first five minutes of the second half to allow Coppin State to jump out to a 42-30 lead.

Navy cut the deficit down to 48-44 and then 51-46 with six minutes remaining, but the Eagles soon regained a double-digit lead at 57-46 with five minutes showing on the clock.

The Mids chipped away at the margin and closed to within six points at 59-53 following a three-point basket by Lysander Rehnstrom at the four-minute mark.  Back-to-back baskets for Coppin State sandwiched around a missed triple by the Mids stretched the gap back out to 10 points at 63-53 with under under two minutes left.  

Navy again made it a two-possession game at 63-57 with 66 seconds showing on the clock.  Now forced to foul, the Mids saw the Eagles convert four foul shots on their next two trips down the floor to make the score 67-57 with 38 seconds left.

Navy shot a slightly higher percentage from the field than Coppin State (40.4%-37.5%) and made more three-point field goals (8-6).  However the Eagles were 20-30 (66.7%) from the foul line and the Mids were 14-22 (63.6%).  Coppin State also held advantages of 13-7 in offensive boards and 14-9 in second-chance points.

The 20 turnovers were the most by the Mids since they committed 23 on Feb. 28, 2023, at Bucknell.

"If you had told me before the game that they (Coppin State) were going to shoot 37 percent from the floor and 25 percent from three," said DeChellis, "I'm telling you that we probably win.  But I didn't count on us turning it over 20 times."

Navy's previous season high for turnovers was 16 last week at Virginia Tech.

Austin Benigni led Navy with 23 points, Jinwoo Kim had 13 points, Jordan Pennick scored 10 points and Donovan Draper snared 10 boards.  

Navy will close its pre-Patriot League slate Dec. 29 with a game at William & Mary.