ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Austin Benigni scored 19 second-half points and Aidan Kehoe posted his fifth double-double in a row as the Navy men's basketball team (22-6, 14-1) recorded a 72-49 victory over Lehigh (12-16, 8-7), Wednesday evening at Alumni Hall in Annapolis.  The victory earns Navy the outright 2026 Patriot League regular season title and the top seed in the upcoming Patriot League Tournament.

It is the first time since 1997 (Patriot League) and the fourth time in school history (1986 and 1987 in the Colonial Athletic Association) in which Navy has won an outright regular season title.

"It is special," said first-year head coach Jon Perry of winning the regular season crown.  "We have a special group of guys. They are really locked in.  We have a higher purpose.  We talk about keeping this going and winning one game at a time.  I thought our seniors really carried us tonight.  Just really proud of them.  But this is just one step."

Navy used an 11-0 run to take an 18-8 lead a little more than nine minutes into the game.  It soon was a 26-14 lead when Lehigh ran off the next five points to close to within 26-19 with five minutes still to play.  The Mids closed the half on a 6-1 run to take a 32-20 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The teams spent the opening minutes of the second half trading baskets, then the Mids went on a 9-2 run to take a 49-33 lead.  After a pair of Lehigh foul shots, Benigni scored the next five points to build a 54-35 lead.  He soon added a three-point basket to push the advantage to 57-37 with just over seven minutes still to play, and then accounted for the last five points in an 8-0 run to make the score 65-40 with four minutes showing on the clock.

Navy improved its field goal shooting from 40 percent in the first half to 50 percent in the second.  That gave the Mids an overall mark of 44.3 percent.  Defensively, the Mids held Lehigh to an overall mark of 33.3 percent and just a 16.7-percent effort (3-18) from three-point range.

Lehigh's Nasir Whitlock leads the Patriot League in scoring and he matched his scoring average tonight with 20 points, but he was 7-17 from the floor and 2-6 from three-point land.

"Nasir Whitlock is a special player; he is dynamic," said Perry.  "A lot of the things we were trying to do, we were paying attention to him."

Navy also won the rebounding statistic, 41-33, and tallied 10 steals on the 12 turnovers committed by Lehigh.  Conversely, the Mountain Hawks totaled six steals on the 10 turnovers they forced.

Benigni was 5-7 from the floor -- 4-5 from three-point range -- and 5-5 from the foul line in scoring 19 of his 25 points after halftime.  He also dished out seven assists and snared four rebounds.  

"That's a senior point guard," said Perry of Benigni's second half.  "He has played in big games and enjoys it.  In my experience with that young guy, even when I was watching him play AAU, the bigger the game, the bigger he becomes.  He settled us down in the second half and figured out how he is being guarded.  We made some adjustments offensively and coach Jordan Lyons called some great things for him in the second half and got him going."

Kehoe finished the night with 14 points, 15 rebounds, two assists and two steals.  

"He was efficient," said Perry of Kehoe.  "I thought the four shots he missed were bunnies.  I might wear him out tomorrow because of that.  The big fella was unbelievable.  He plays 36 minutes and I am asking him if he needs to come out and he says no.  To play that many minutes with that physicality and know where the ball is going is something special."

Playing a productive all-around game was Donovan Draper with eight points, 11 rebounds, five steals and four assists.

Navy heads to West Point, N.Y., for a Saturday game at Army.  The annual Star Game between the teams will begin at 1:30 p.m. and be aired on the CBS Sports Network.