ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Aidan Kehoe made all 11 of his field goal attempts and his 23 points made him one of six Mids to score in double figures in an 87-71 victory by the Navy men's basketball team (17-6, 9-1) over Loyola (8-15, 4-6), Saturday afternoon at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.

The Mids also started Patriot League seasons with 9-1 records in 1997-98, 1999-00 and 2020-21.  

Colgate is alone in second place in the standings with a 7-3 record.

"I thought today was as close as we have come to playing a complete game from one half to another," said Navy head coach Jon Perry. "I'm really proud of the guys.  We really only had one day to prepare as we had a light day Thursday after flying back from Boston that morning.  It is a blessing having a mature team, and a team that is really focused.  The guys were locked in."

Navy used a 15-3 and 22-6 run to turn an 11-8 deficit into 23-14 and 30-17 leads.  Loyola climbed right back into the game with the three-point shot as it soon was a 36-32 Navy advantage with five minutes left before halftime. The Mids eventually went into the break holding a 44-36 lead.

Navy scored those 44 points with Austin Benigni missing his only field goal attempt and being held scoreless in the half.  Kehoe was 7-7 from the floor in scoring 15 points to pace the Mids in the first 20 minutes.

Eight of Loyola's 13 first half baskets were triples.  Conversely, Navy was just 3-8 from beyond the arc in the half and 17-21 in its two-point attempts, which combined for a 69 percent overall shooting effort.

After a Loyola basket opened the scoring in the second half (44-38), the Mids went on an 11-2 spurt to push the lead to 55-40 with 12:45 remaining in the game.  Kehoe both started and ended that run with baskets.

The teams pretty much traded scores for the ensuing five minutes until Navy took its largest lead of the game to that point at 68-52 with just under eight minutes left to play.  The Greyhounds needed all of 28 seconds to trim the margin back down to 10 points at 68-58.

Navy went back inside to Kehoe on its next possession, who scored to make it a 12-point game.  Loyola's Emmett Adair drained a pair of three-point baskets sandwiched around a Donovan Draper field goal to make it a 72-64 game with 5:40 remaining.

The ball was knocked out of bounds off of Loyola with six seconds remaining on the shot clock when Navy next had the ball.  The Mids called timeout and when play resumed Jordan Pennick nailed a jumper to push the lead back to 10 points.  Draper then recorded his fifth steal of the game to end the Loyola possession.  Navy capitalized on the opportunity when Cam Cole found Draper on the fast break for a jumper.  Draper snared a defensive carom on the other end, and that led to Benigni making a three-point basket to cap a 7-0 run that gave Navy a 79-64 cushion with just 3:52 showing on the clock.

"They (Loyola) are a really good basketball team," said Perry. "They are really talented on the perimeter.

"Our guys just stayed composed and calm.  We have been through some losing, we have been through some winning and I think as you grow as a team together you know how to absorb all of that and try not to get too high or too low when those runs are happening."

Offensively, Navy didn't cool off too much from the first half as it shot 62.1 percent from the field in the second half.  That overall mark of 65.5 percent -- which included a 32-43 (74.4%) showing in two-point attempts -- is a Navy record for a Patriot League game (previous mark was 64.9% against American on Jan. 28, 2015) and is tied for 12th place for the highest in any game.  Helping the Mids to that effort were 27 assists on 38 made field goals.  The 27 helpers are tied for second for the most by a Navy team in a Patriot League game and tied for 16th place overall.

"I am really excited about these guys buying in to moving the basketball," said Perry on the 27 assists. "That's basketball.  They are starting to understand the spacing, how to play with Aidan down low, when to flash into the high post, how to rotate."

Navy last scored at least 87 points in a league regular season game when it won an 87-86 overtime game against American on Jan. 16, 2021, and last did so in a 40-minute game when it won an 88-83 game at Lehigh on Jan. 15, 2020.

Additionally, it was the ninth time a Navy team had six players score in double figures (the record is seven).  It had not been accomplished since a Dec. 18, 2005, game against Washington (Md.) and it was last done against a Division I opponent on Jan. 27, 2001 against Colgate.

After shooting 8-17 (47.1%) from three-point land in the first half, Loyola was just 4-13 (30.8%) from long range in the second half.  The Greyhound shot 40 percent overall from three-point range and 40.3 percent from the field in all.

"The threes kept Loyola in the game," said Perry, "but we did a much better job of guarding them in the second half."

Navy also held a 50-24 lead in points scored in the paint and a 36-24 edge on the glass.  Even though the Greyhounds snared 12 offensive boards to 10 for the Mids, Navy held a 14-10 lead in second-chance points.  

Kehoe's 11-11 effort tied the Patriot League record for the most baskets made without a miss, and was one shy of tying the school-record 12-12 production by David Robinson against East Carolina on March 7, 1985.

"He is a special young guy," said Perry of Kehoe, who leads the NCAA in field goal percentage this season.  "He got sped up a bit today, but it is amazing how he is able to absorb things on the sideline.  I thought he had a couple of really good skips for wide open threes, and those are plays he was not making last year.  That's a credit to him watching film and being coachable."

Additionally, Pennick scored 15 points on 6-9 shooting, Draper scored 14 points as he was 7-11 from the floor, Jinwoo Kim tallied 12 points and Cole chipped in 10.  Benigni finished with 11 points, which gives him 941 career points in Patriot League games to surpass the school record of 937 set by Greg Sprink (2005-08).

Not only did six Mids score 10 or more points, seven had at least three assists.  Benigni, Pennick and Mike Woods each had five assists with Kehoe, Kim, Cole and Draper all dishing out three assists.

Draper also finished with five steals and six rebounds while Kehoe added seven boards and two steals.

"That's Donovan Draper," said Perry.  "He is everywhere.  He guarded five guys today.  He has the ability to do that, and in transition he is able to get us some easy baskets.  He has been in the gym working on his jump shot.  I"m excited for that guy."

Adair made six of Loyola's 12 three-point field goals on his way to totaling 28 points and seven boards for the Greyhounds.

Navy will next play Wednesday at Lafayette.