EASTON, Pa. -- Lafayette held the Navy men's basketball team to season lows for points and field goal percentage in a 61-51 victory by the Leopards (10-15, 5-7) over the Mids (8-17, 5-7), Saturday afternoon at the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.

The game was Navy's fourth road game in its last five games as well as the team's seventh road game in the last 10.

"I thought we were pretty good tonight defensively," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "We weren't very good the other night at Boston and we went to work on it hard.  Offensively, the ugly head showed up today where you can't make a basket. It is really hard to win games when you shoot 29 percent from the floor.  I thought we took some hard shots.  We had several guys not have very good nights shooting the basketball.  I don't think it was because of a lack of effort or anything in that regard.  We just had one of those games when we couldn't make shots. I thought the kids fought to the end; we pressed them (Lafayette) and made some steals and some baskets, but all along the way you have to shoot better than 29 percent and score more than 51 points or you make it really, really hard on your defense."

Navy missed its first 10 shots from the floor but fell behind by only an 8-0 count as Lafayette began the game 4-14.  The Mids made their first basket with 11:49 remaining in the half.

Navy's shooting woes continued through the frame as another six-minute scoring drought dug a 23-9 hole for the Mids before Lafayette took a 25-16 lead at the break.  

The Mids shot 20 percent (6-29) from the floor while the Leopards made 37 percent (10-27) of their shots in the half.  Lafayette's Justin Vander Baan alone was 5-9 from the field in scoring 10 points to go along with nine rebounds in the opening frame.

Navy opened the second half by scoring the first four points to make it a 25-20 game.  Lafayette scored the ensuing nine points to build a 34-20 lead four minutes into the half.

The Mids made it a nine-point game at 44-35, but the Leopards immediately scored on the other end to begin a 7-0 run to increase their cushion to 51-35 with nine minutes remaining.

The margin remained in double figures until Jordan Pennick made two foul shots with 37 seconds left to make it a 59-51 difference.

"It is disappointing to have another road loss," said DeChellis.  "I thought we were ready to play.  I thought we had a good practice Friday.  It was a one-day prep because we got back from Boston so late on Thursday.  But I thought we were ready to go and it was disappointing we couldn't score more points."

Navy was 19-64 from the field to shoot 29.7 percent,  which included a 5-22 (22.7%) effort from three-point range.  

Navy's previous low for points this year was 59 at Holy Cross and its low for shooting percentage was 31.8 percent against Elon.

"I thought it was hard at times," said DeChellis of Navy's shot selection.  "Vander Baan really clogs up the paint, so guys were hesitant about driving and getting to the basket.  (That led to) a lot of pull-up jumpers.  That's the worst shot in basketball, analytically.  I thought we had some threes we didn't shoot that we normally do.  Guys were hesitant on that.  Not sure why; we encouraged them to shoot those.  Overall, we didn't make many shots, but I thought we passed up some shots to take some harder ones."

Lafayette made 47.1 percent (24-51) of its field goal attempts and was 6-23 (26.1%) from beyond the arc.

"I thought we were into them and made them play against us for the most part," said DeChellis of Navy's defense.  "But I look at the numbers and their three priority guys we needed to stop all scored.  One had 17 (Caleb Williams), one had 14 (Alex Chaikin) and one had 15 (Vander Baan).  That's 46 of their 61 points.  Williams got going in the second half with eight or 10 points in a row and we had no answer for him defensively.  I say our defense was better; we gave up only 61 points and they shot 47 percent which is not like it is astronomical.  When it was time to make the plays defensively midway through the second half, we didn't make them as well as we needed to."

Lafayette held a 40-33 advantage on the glass.  The Mids turned the ball over 11 times and forced 17 turnovers.

Austin Benigni scored 19 points and Pennick added 14 points.  Aidan Kehoe grabbed nine rebounds on the afternoon.

Navy will begin a week of home games Wednesday when it plays host to Lehigh.