BALTIMORE, Md. -- An offensive rebound and putback by Braeden Speed with 3.1 seconds left proved to be the deciding points in a back-and-forth 75-74 victory for Loyola (7-8, 2-2 Patriot League) over the Navy men's basketball team (5-12, 2-2 Patriot League), Saturday evening at Reitz Arena in Baltimore.

Speed's late field goal was the eighth lead change in the final three minutes of the game.

"It is a very disappointing loss," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "I tried to tell the players that we had a minute and a half to go in the game and we just made some really egregious mistakes.  Whether it was the press offense having the ball, throwing the ball away, missing a layup, making a defensive error ... it is a possession game at that point and you can't make the mistakes we made.  

"We will grow from it, we will learn from it.  We are fighting through some adversity and the team has to learn; they have to learn how to win.  They had a great opportunity to do so tonight (but) we didn't."

Navy jumped out to an early 10-3 lead and soon built advantages of 19-9 and then 35-23 with 3:47 left in the half.  Loyola closed the frame on an 11-0 run to climb back into the game at 35-34 at intermission.

The Greyhounds used the three-point shot (6-16 in the half, 4-8 by Jacob Theodosiou) and the Mids committing seven turnovers while forcing just two to draw to within one point.

Loyola tied the game at 43-43 less than five minutes into the second half.  Navy regained a slim lead and held a 56-50 advantage when the Greyhounds scored the next seven points to take their first lead of the game at 57-56 with 9:30 left on the clock.  Loyola added two more points to its run (59-56) before the Mids answered with the next four (60-59).

The score soon was tied at 62-62 with 7:19 left on the clock.  Loyola briefly held a 67-64 advantage until Austin Benigni made a pair of free throws with 4:02 left and again with 2:59 remaining to give Navy a 68-67 lead. Jordan Stiemke answered with a layup on the other end 13 seconds later (71-70).  Each team had an empty possession, then Benigni made two more foul shots with 61 seconds remaining to give the Mids a 72-71 lead.

Loyola quickly advanced the ball over halfcourt and called timeout.  When play resumed, Theodosiou drove down the left side of the court and his short jumper wedged between the rim and the backboard.  That resulted in a jump ball and the possession arrow was pointing toward Navy with 52.1 seconds left.

The Mids threw the ball away on the inbounds pass and it was picked off by Loyola.  The Greyhounds called timeout with 38.2 seconds on the game clock and 18 seconds remaining on the shot clock.  Navy committed a foul on the inbounds pass, which sent Stiemke to the foul line shooting the bonus.  He missed the front end of the opportunity and Donovan Draper grabbed the rebound.  Draper found Jordan Pennick breaking free down the court.  However, Pennick's challenged running layup missed and it was snared by Theodosiou who was fouled with 28.2 seconds still to play.

He made both attempts to give Loyola a 73-72 lead.

The Mids gave the ball to Benigni who was fouled on a move to the basket with 12.4 seconds left.  Benigni made both attempts to give the Mids a 74-73 lead.

Back came the Greyhounds and they sent the ball inside to Milos Ilic.  His short jumper was off the mark, but Speed was there for the offensive rebound.  He scored on the putback to account for the 11th lead change of the second half, this time with just 3.1 seconds remaining.

Navy used its last timeout.  After the stoppage, Benigni inbounded the ball to Draper who immediately gave it back to Benigni and he quickly traversed up the court.  His 25-foot off-balanced attempt at the buzzer missed the mark.

"I tried to impress upon the guys that it is not just the last minute plays," said DeChellis, "it is the plays throughout the game that we made or didn't make.  We let the one kid (Theodosiou) get going and make a bunch of threes; we didn't close out on him.  Things of that nature.  They go on an 11-0 run to end the first half.  That's a huge comeback by them.  Instead of us being up 10, we are up one.  That's a whole different game.  There are plays throughout the game that we didn't make.  If we made them, we are not in the scenario that we were at the end of the game."

Navy shot over 50 percent from the floor in each half and ended the game with an overall mark of 53.8 percent.  Loyola shot 45.8 percent from the field in the game but was 9-24 (37.5%) from three-point range while the Mids were 5-12 (41.7%).  Additionally, Navy was 13-15 (86.7%) from the foul line and Loyola was 12-17 (70.6%).

Turnovers hurt the Mids as their 13 turnovers led to 16 Loyola points.  The Greyhounds committed just six turnovers which led to six points for Navy.  The Greyhounds also held a 29-9 advantage in bench points.

Navy had four players score in double figures.  Benigni's 18 points led the way with Aidan Kehoe registering 16 points on 8-8 shooting and adding 12 rebounds for his fifth-straight double-double.  The last Mid to record a double-double in as many as five-straight games in a single season was David Robinson, who posted one in each of the last 12 games of the 1985-86 season before starting the 1986-87 campaign with three more.

Kehoe also joins Hassan Booker (Lehigh, Feb. 8, 1997), Evan Wieck (Holy Cross, Jan, 29, 2020) and Daniel Deaver (Bucknell, Jan. 7, 2022), as the only Mids to be perfect from the field with at least eight attempts during a Patriot League regular season game.  Kehoe is the eighth Mid to accomplish this in any game.

Theodosiou was 6-11 from three-point range in scoring 27 points to lead all players.

Navy will be home Wednesday to play host to Colgate.