ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Donovan Draper drained a mid-range jumper with 2.1 seconds left to give the Navy men's basketball team a dramatic 71-70 victory over Lafayette, Sunday afternoon at Alumni Hall.  The Mids, who trailed 70-65 with 2:20 remaining and 70-67 with 64 seconds left, improved to 2-0 in Patriot League play (5-10 overall) while the Leopards fell to 1-1 in league games (6-9 overall).

"It's a great game to win," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "It was a possession game in the second half.  Really proud of our guys.  They are starting to believe they can win.  That's really important."

Navy used a 7-0 and 13-2 run to take a 21-13 lead with 9:30 left in the first half.  Lafayette cut the deficit down to five points at 24-19 before Navy extended the margin out to 37-26.  Draper and Aidan Kehoe each had four points during the latter 13-7 run.  The Mids would go into halftime nursing a 41-33 lead thanks to their shooting 51.5 percent from the floor.

Lafayette wasted no time in cutting into the Navy lead at the start of the second half.  The Leopards quickly drew to within 45-42 and were a missed layup away from making it a 45-44 game three minutes into the frame.

Navy regained a 52-45 lead only to see the Leopards score the next eight points to take a 53-52 lead.  The Mids responded with the next seven points to take a 59-53 advantage midway through the second half.

The Navy lead was 65-62 with a little more than four minutes remaining.  Lafayette scored the next eight points to take a 70-65 advantage with 2:20 on the clock.  The Mids saw their scoring drought extend to well over three minutes until Jinwoo Kim made a pair of free throws with 1:04 left to cut the deficit to 70-67.  

Lafayette proceeded to run the shot clock down on its next possession.  Justin Vander Bann, who scored 11 second half points, eventually missed a shot for the Leopards.  Players from both teams grabbed for the loose ball and ultimately a jump ball was called with 37.7 seconds left and the possession arrow pointing toward the Mids.

Navy called timeout.  When play resumed, the Mids sent the ball inside to Kehoe, who was fouled with 18.6 seconds remaining.  A 30-percent foul shooter on the season, he made both attempts from the charity stripe -- he was 4-6 from the line on the day -- to make the score 70-69.

The Mids tried to foul when Lafayette inbounded the ball, but couldn't do so.  However, the scramble did force the Leopards to run a significant amount of time off the clock.  Lafayette eventually called timeout with 10.4 seconds left in the game and the ball still in the backcourt.  The stoppage gave the Leopards a fresh 10 seconds to advance the ball over halfcourt, but it also was Lafayette's last available timeout.  

With the ensuing play starting in front of the middle of the Navy bench, Lafayette was unable to inbound the ball before a five-second violation was called to return the ball to Navy.

The Mids promptly called their last timeout.  Cam Cole triggered the play to Austin Benigni, who backed up over halfcourt to cleanly accept the pass.  He then drove down the left side of the lane and reached the low block when his path was impeded by Lafayette defenders.  Benigni looked back and saw Draper gliding right to left across the top of the key to about the 17-foot mark on the left side of the lane.  He caught and shot the ball in one motion and his effort dropped through the netting with 2.1 seconds left.  

"The play was designed to get Austin downhill to his left hand," said Draper of the last play.  "They (Lafayette) double teamed him.  I just found myself open and he trusted me to make the pass.  I just took the shot.  It felt good and obviously it went in.  It took a while to get in there, but once it did I was like, 'Thank God.'"

"The second (option) was Draper in that area," said DeChellis.  "Austin made a really good play.  He could have easily taken the shot or forced it.  Growth on his part in that he found Draper as the second part of the play.  He had the confidence to zip the ball to Draper and he knocked it in.  That's a big deal.  He could have driven it in there and taken a tough shot, but he trusted his teammate."  

The Leopards quickly inbounded the ball and a second pass gave it to Andrew Phillips whose effort from more than halfcourt was obstructed by Draper and never reached the other foul line as the game clock expired.

It was Navy's first game winning shot in the waning seconds of a game since Hasan Abdullah gave the Mids a 50-48 victory over Holy Cross on Jan. 6, 2019.

"You are down three (points) and down five and we just kept telling them what they needed to do, and they did it," said DeChellis.  "They did a good job down the stretch.  It looked like (for awhile there), oh no, and we just needed to make plays to extend the game, believe and see what happened."

Navy saw its shooting numbers cool off in the second half to just a 34.6 percent effort.  Draper was 5-6 from the floor after halftime and the rest of the Mids were a combined 4-20.  

Lafayette made 14-32 shots (43.8%) from the floor after halftime as the Leopards held advantages of 22-4 in points scored in the paint and 12-2 in second-chance points in the final 20 minutes of play.

"Disappointed in our rebounding and defense in the second half," said DeChellis.  "We didn't play our best game.  We put ourselves in a little bit of a pickle.  They kids executed down the stretch and we found a way to win.  That was a positive."

Each team ended the game shooting roughly the same overall percentage from the floor (Navy 44.1%, Lafayette 45.8%) while the Mids were 7-16 (43.8%) from three-point range and the Leopards were 9-23 (39.1%) from beyond the arc.  Finally, Navy was 12-17 (70.6%) from the foul line while Lafayette was 7-12 (58.3%).

The Leopards won the rebounding battle, 38-32, while Navy committed just seven turnovers and forced 12.

Five Mids scored in double figures for the second time in three games.  Draper finished with 17 points and fell one carom short of a double-double with nine boards.  He also added three steals.  Kehoe did notch a double-double for the second time this week as he totaled 12 points and 10 boards and also shared the team lead with four assists.  Benigni contributed 14 points, five rebounds and four assists while Kim and Jordan Pennick he tallied 10 points.

Navy now goes on the road for games Wednesday at Holy Cross and Saturday at Loyola.