ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A strong defensive first half boosted the Navy men's basketball team (9-17, 6-7 Patriot League) to a slim lead it held for the final 36 minutes of a 63-60 victory over Lehigh (9-15, 4-9 Patriot League), Wednesday night at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

The result ended a three-game losing streak for Navy.

"I thought defensively in the first half we were very good," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis, who tonight set the school record for the most games as a head coach with 418.  "We didn't play as well defensively in the second half.  Offensively we just are not clicking on all cylinders."  

Points were hard to come by for each team at the start.  The Mids began the night 2-13 from the floor while the Mountain Hawks did not make a field goal until their ninth attempt of the evening at the 11:37 mark of the half.  

Navy took a 12-8 lead before going on a 10-2 run to open up a 22-10 advantage with four minutes left before intermission.  The Mids would take a 26-16 lead into the locker room.

The Mids took leads of 34-19 and 39-25 early in the second half.  The Mountain Hawks scored the next seven points to draw to within 39-32 with 13 minutes still to play.

The lead grew to as many as 11 points and stayed at least eight points until Lehigh made it a 52-46 game with just under seven minutes on the clock.  The teams exchanged baskets and then the Mountain Hawks sliced the margin down to four points at 56-52 with 2:02 showing on the clock.

Neither team scored until Mike Woods made a pair of foul shots for Navy with 30.8 seconds remaining to push the lead back to six points (58-52).  It took all of eight seconds before Lehigh made it a one-possession game at 58-55 following a three-point basket by Joshua Ingram.  The Mountain Hawks fouled Austin Benigni on the inbounds pass with 20.1 seconds showing on the clock.  He made both attempts to stretch the margin to 60-55.

Cam Gillus drew a foul while driving down the lane for Lehigh on the ensuing possession.  However, he missed both free throw attempts with 13.3 seconds still to play.  He second errant shot was grabbed by Donovan Draper and he was fouled with 11.1 seconds left.  He made the second of his two shots to make the score 61-55.

Lehigh drilled another three-point basket on its next time down the floor to once again make it a one-possession game at 61-58 with 5.9 seconds left on the clock.  The Mountain Hawks fouled Benigni with 5.3 seconds remaining and he made both free throws on the other end.

"I thought we played hard and we really competed," said DeChellis.  "We did some good stuff on the defensive end. They (Lehigh) are an explosive team.

"Glad we were able to hold on, make some plays down the stretch and make some free throws when we needed to."

Navy made 21 field goals including seven from long range while Lehigh made 23 field goals and seven triples.  Each team shot roughly the same percent from the floor (Navy, 38.2%; Lehigh, 37.1%).  The Mids were 14-20 from the free throw line and the Mountain Hawks were 7-14.

Benigni led all players with 21 points and six assists.  Lysander Rehnstrom was 4-4 from the floor including 3-3 from three-point range in scoring 11 points.  Aidan Kehoe totaled 15 rebounds on the night.

"I thought he (Rehnstrom) did a really nice job," said DeChellis.  "He scored some points off the bench.  He really shot the heck out of it yesterday in practice, and it continued today."

Navy will play host to Army Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in the annual Star Game between the teams.