Game #29 / Patriot League Game #18 • at American
Saturday, March 2 • 2 p.m. • Bender Arena • Washington, D.C.

Multimedia Information
Live Streaming - ESPN+ / Dan Laing, Gordon Austin
Navy Radio - WNAV AM-1430, FM-99.9, www.iheart.com/live/999-wnav-9420, Audacy app / Pete Medhurst
Live Statistics - NavySports.com

Five Starting Notes
1 – Navy will be either the No. 7 or 8 seed in the upcoming Patriot League Tournament.  American can be seeded anywhere from Nos. 2-5.
2 – This is the 30th season in which Navy and American are members of the same conference.  The teams first shared membership in the ECAC South / Colonial Athletic Association for seven seasons (1984-85 to 1990-91) and have been members of the Patriot League since the 2001-02 season.
3 – The teams have split the 104 previous games in the series.
4 – Six of the last 10 games in the series played in Bender Arena have been determined by nine or fewer points.
5 – The visiting team has won the last four games in the series. 

Game Information
•    The 2024 regular season concludes Saturday when Navy (11-17, 7-10) plays at American (16-14, 10-7) in a 2 p.m. game.
•    The game will be streamed through ESPN+.
•    WNAV will each carry a radio broadcast of the game.
•    Links to live statistics from the game can be accessed at NavySports.com.

Tournament Seeding
•    Navy will be either the No. 7 or 8 seed in the Patriot League Tournament.  No matter the seed, the Mids will play host to a first round game on Tuesday, March 5.  
•    American can be seeded anywhere from Nos. 2-5 in the tournament.

Last Game
•    The Mids closed their home slate with a 62-58 win over Lafayette Wednesday night.
•    Navy scored the first eight points of the game and build leads of 12 in the first half and 13 in the second half.
•    The Mids led, 55-45, but Lafayette tied the game at 56 with 1:59 on the clock.  Both teams committed turnovers, then Austin Benigni made a jumper with 46.1 remaining (58-56).
•    A miss by the Leopards was followed by Benigni making two free throws with 15.8 seconds left (60-56).
•    The Leopards cut the lead in half with a basket (60-58, 4.1 left), then Benigni was fouled with 2.3 remaining.  He made both attempts to close the scoring.

About American
•    American has posted an overall record of 16-14 (8-5 in home games) and a Patriot League record of 10-7 (4-4 in road games).
•    The Eagles have posted back-to-back wins at Colgate (66-64) and at Army (73-51).

Series History
•    The teams first met Feb. 2, 1929, when Navy defeated American, 46-21, in Annapolis.
•    The series is tied with each team winning 52 games.  The Eagles lead the Mids, 24-16, in games played on American's home floor, which includes a 19-10 lead in games played in Bender Arena.
•    Twelve of the last 18 games in the series have been decided by single digits.  Six of the last 10 games played in Bender Arena have been determined by nine or fewer points.
•    American leads the Patriot League series between the teams, 30-17.  This includes a 16-7 advantage in games played in Washington, D.C .
•    The teams also met annually for seven years (1985-91) as members of the ECAC South Conference / Colonial Athletic Association.  Navy led American, 8-6, in conference regular season games played during that era.

Series Longevity
•    Navy has faced American the second-most times of any opponent in school history.  Only Army (141) has been an opponent more times than the Eagles (104).
•    This is the 63rd season in which American and Navy are facing each other.  That ranks third for the most seasons in which the Mids have played an opponent.
•    Navy has played Army in 101 seasons and Penn in 78 seasons.
•    Navy and American have faced each other in seven different cities and 10 different venues.  The 10 arenas is a high for any Navy series and the seven different cities ranks second (to Navy-Duke in eight).

On This Date
•    Navy has posted an 9-10 record in games played on March 2.  This includes a 3-4 record in Patriot League regular season games.
•    This will be the second Navy-American game to be played on March 2 (2023).

Against The District
•    Navy has posted a 141-99 record in games played against opponents located in Washington, D.C.

In The District
•    Navy has posted a 24-39 record in games played in Washington, D.C.

Up Next
•    Navy will play host to a first round game in the Patriot League Tournament on Tuesday, March 5.

Eight First-Time Starters
•    Eleven Mids have started at least one game this season.   It marked the first career start for eight of those 11 players.
•    Navy has used 11 different starting lineups this year.
•    The Mids have had four different starting lineups in the last four games.

More Court Time
•    Nearly every player on the team has played in more games, logged more minutes and scored more points this season than what they had totaled before this year.
•    Among returning players, all but Austin Inge has either tied or set a new career single-game scoring high this season.

Kehoe on the Court
•    Aidan Kehoe has made his presence felt over the last three games.
•    He has totaled 83 minutes played (27.7 mpg), 24 points (8.0 ppg), 19 rebounds (6.3 rpg), 12 offensive rebounds (4.0 org), seven assists (2.3 apg) and five blocks (1.7 bpg) during this recent span.
•    Kehoe had totaled 158 minutes, 26 points, 40 rebounds, 14 offensive rebounds, six assists and nine blocks in his 26 game career prior to this span.

At the FT Line – Navy
•    Navy ranked 343rd nationally during the 2022-23 season with an average of 13.5 free throws attempted a game, and 344th with an average of 9.5 free throws made a game.
•    In 2023-24, the Mids rank 108th nationally in free throws attempted (20.7) and 133rd in free throws made (14.5) per game.  Those averages lead the Patriot League.
•    Compared to their foes this year, the Mids are +40 in free throws attempted and +22 in free throws made.
•    In league games, Navy is +55 in free throws attempted and +26 in free throws made.

At the FT Line – Austin Benigni
•    Austin Benigni ranks first in the Patriot League and 28th in the country with 146 free throws made this season.
•    He also ranks first in the league and 42nd nationally with 176 free throws attempted.
•    Benigni's free throw percentage of .830 stands second in the league.
•    He ranks second among the Navy sophomore class leaders for the most free throws made and attempted and the best free throw percentage.

Benigni Scoring In Double Figures
•    Austin Benigni has set a new school standard for the most games by a Mid with scoring 10 or more points during an 18-game Patriot League season (2014-15 to 2019-20, 2021-22 to present).
•    He has scored 10 or more points in 17 league games this year to better Daniel Deaver's total of 16 set a year ago.

Navy Bench Has Been a Strength
•    The Mids have received an average of at least 20 points a game from their bench since the start of the 2020-21 campaign.
•    The Navy reserve players have outscored their foes 591-385 this year.
•    Navy ranks third in the Patriot League and 128th nationally in bench scoring this season (21.11 ppg).

Positive Turnover Margin 
•     Navy is on pace to again have a positive turnover margin (fewer turnovers committed than forced).
•    The Mids lead the Patriot League and rank 10th nationally with a 4.1 turnover margin this season.
•    The Mids are scoring an average of 5.0 points per game after turnovers more than their foes this year.

Navy Good Again on the Offensive Boards 
•     Navy has been very good over the last number of years at winning the offensive rebound margin.
•    The Mids rank first in the Patriot League and 32nd nationally this season with an average of 12.57 offensive rebounds per game.

Second-Chance Points 
•    Navy has scored more second-chance points than its foes in 195 of the 292 games (66.7%) it has played since the start of the 2014-15 season.  
•    The Mids have scored 338 second chance points this season and allowed foes to score 262.

Mike Woods Key on the Offensive Glass 
•     70 of the 213 career points (32.9%) scored by Mike Woods have been second-chance points.
•    Navy has scored on 47 of the 81 (58.0%) career possessions in which Woods has grabbed an offensive rebound.

Draper's Boards and Steals Remain High
•    Navy has scored on 45 of the 87 (51.7%) possessions in which Donovan Draper has grabbed an offensive rebound.
•    Draper's offensive rebound average (3.25 org) currently ranks fourth by a Mid in a season since it became an official statistics with the 1986-87 season.
•    Draper's defensive rebound average (5.86 drpg) currently ranks second by a Mid in a season since it became an official statistics with the 1986-87 season.
•    Draper has grabbed 10 or more rebounds in 12 games this season.  That is the most by a Mid during Navy's Patriot League era.
•    Draper also ranks among the leaders for the most double-doubles during Navy's Patriot League era with  nine (the school standard is 10).

Navy Pace
•    Navy traditionally has been one of the more deliberate teams in terms of possessions per game under head coach Ed DeChellis.  
•    The Mids rank fourth in the Patriot League and 286th in the country with an average of 65.9 possessions a game this season.
•    American ranks 10th in the Patriot League and 355th nationally with an average of 63.1 possessions a game.  
•    There were 58 possessions in the first game of the season between the teams.