WASHINGTON, D.C. -- American (22-12) scored the opening nine points of the game and never trailed in posting a 74-52 victory over the Navy men's basketball team (15-19), Wednesday night at Bender Arena in the championship game of the Patriot League Tournament.
"I want to first of all congratulate American," said Navy head coach
Ed DeChellis. "They played a great game tonight. Congratulations to Duane Simpkins and his staff for what they were able to do this year. Very impressive.
"It wasn't our night, offensively or defensively. We just didn't play very well. We all picked a bad night to play the way we did and for me to coach the way I did. I thought we played well the last 10-12 days. I was really looking forward to the game. We just didn't do things we talked about doing defensively and we had a hard time scoring offensively."
After the hot start by second-seeded American, fifth-seeded Navy closed to within three points at 9-3, 11-8 and 13-10. The Eagles quickly scored the next seven points to build a 20-10 lead with 8:35 remaining. The Mids whittled the margin down to six points on two occasions before it grew to 12 points at 33-21. American took a 37-28 lead into halftime.
Navy totaled 10 made field goals in the first half, but American made six three-point field goals and tallied 15 baskets as part of a 57.7 percent shooting half. The Mids were limited to 34.5 percent shooting.
The Eagles opened a 43-30 lead in the early stages of the second half and maintained a double-digit advantage over the rest of the game.
Navy, which had scored at least 80 points in three-straight games and four of the last five, never found a rhythm on offense. The Mids shot just 35.1 percent from the field on the night including a 4-20 (20%) effort from three-point range. On the other end of the floor, American made 11 three-point field goals and shot 51.9 percent overall for the game.
"It is really hard to win if you shoot 35 percent and 20 percent from three," said DeChellis. "It is really hard to win. But what was disappointing to me was on the defensive end. We just didn't do things we wanted to do and talked about doing. Credit American; they made some shots and ran their offense well.
"I'm proud of our guys. We have had a great finish to the year, winning seven of our last eight games. Sometimes you just have one of those nights and it just doesn't work for you, and we had that night tonight."
Austin Benigni, who was named to the all-tournament team, totaled 18 points, four assists and two steals.
Donovan Draper notched a double-double of 11 points and 12 rebounds.
Jinwoo Kim added eight points and six boards.
I'm just really proud of our team," said Draper. "We really came together (late). We had some struggles in the beginning and we still made it a point to ourselves that we were going to band together as a team. All I can say are really good things about these guys. I am really excited about next year. We have a young team with only three seniors leaving. We have our core group coming back."
"I thought these guys did a great job the last month of the season," said DeChellis. "We really improved. We were looking forward to tonight. We really thought we would come over here and win. We did that two weeks ago. We have been playing very well in the tournament against Boston and Bucknell. There really wasn't a reason to think we weren't going to play well. We just didn't.
"We lost a game. We are not a team or a program that hasn't been successful. We lost a game tonight. We had a winning record in the league. We came out tied for third. We were picked eighth. It is all because of these guys. We will continue to work and try to get better."
