BALTIMORE, Md. -- Jinwoo Kim made five three-point field goals and tied a career high with 25 points during a 78-51 victory by the Navy men's basketball team (24-6, 16-1) over Loyola (11-19, 7-10), Wednesday night at Reitz Arena in Baltimore.

Loyola started the game 5-6 from the floor in taking an early 11-5 lead.  The Mids scored the next nine points as part of an 18-3 run that gave them a 23-14 advantage.  

"After a slow start," said Navy head coach Jon Perry, "I thought we really settled into the game."

A triple by the Greyhounds followed, but Navy strung together the next 10 points to stretch the lead to 33-17.  It would become a 41-22 advantage before the teams went into halftime with the Mids in front 43-25.

The Greyhounds were 5-23 from the field after their strong start.  Loyola made five three-point field goals in all, which was just above its average for a half (9.7 for a game), but Navy made seven triples, which was above the team's season average of 6.3 for a full game.

Also, Navy shot 53.3 percent from the floor in the half and held Loyola to a mark of 34.5 percent.  

Austin Benigni and Kim each made a trio of three-pointers in the half as Benigni scored 13 points and Kim 11.  

"Our transition offense was really good for us," said Perry.  "I thought we were taking advantage of some stops.  We were able to touch the paint and get some open threes"

Kim continued his hot shooting at the start of the second half as he scored the team's first 10 points of the stanza to help the Mids open a 55-28 advantage just five minutes into the half.

Loyola answered with an 8-0 run to chip into the margin at 55-36.  A three-point basket from Benigni and a jumper from Mike Woods made the score 60-36.  The lead would stay at least 20 points for all but 20 seconds over the rest of the game.

Navy was more successful shooting in the second half than it was in the first as it made 56.5 percent of its attempts from the field to finish the game with an overall mark of 54.7 percent.  The Mids also played better defense after halftime as they limited the Greyhounds to a 28.6 percent effort which lowered their overall percentage to 31.6 percent.  Loyola also was just 2-18 from three-point range after halftime to end the night 7-32 (21.9%). Conversely, Navy finished the night 10-22 from long range (45.5%).  It was the fourth league game this year in which the Mids made at last 10 three-point baskets.

The Greyhounds entered the game averaging 76.0 points per game and shooting 43.6 percent from the floor on the year.

"Really proud of the guys for the defensive effort tonight," said Perry.  "Anytime you can hold a good basketball team to 51 points at this level is pretty good. That's something we continue to build upon.

"It is attention to detail, it is the guys showing up every day being professional, it is the staff doing a great job of putting the scout film together.  The staff watches a ton of film and they cut it up and help these guys understand tendencies and trying to take two or three actions away."

Navy held leads of 39-32 on the glass and 32-22 in points scored in the paint.  Loyola committed 10 turnovers and forced nine, but held a 17-9 advantage in points after turnovers.

Kim previously scored 25 points earlier this season at Penn State.  He was 5-8 from beyond the arc as part of an 8-12 shooting effort from the floor.

"Jinwoo can do that," said Perry.  "Cam Cole can do that, Jordan Pennick can do that; he played really well tonight.  Those guys have to continue to do that.  Really happy for Jinwoo.  His teammates found him open tonight.  He got going and saw one or two go in and we started running some stuff to get him the ball.
Benigni sank four treys as he finished the night with 22 points.  

Aidan Kehoe notched his seventh double-double in a row with 10 points and 16 rebounds and also dished out six assists.

"Rebounding is activity," said Perry of Kehoe, "and he plays extremely hard.  His conditioning and his will ... he understands that is a strength of his, and we need him to do that."

Navy will close the regular season Saturday when the Mids play host to Colgate at 4 p.m. in Alumni Hall.