Austin Benigni hit the wall and faded toward the end of his freshman season.
At this time last year, Donovan Draper was a member of the Navy football team.
Those two sophomores have improved dramatically over the course of this season and are the primary reasons why the Navy men’s basketball team is moving on to the quarterfinals of the Patriot League Tournament.
Benigni scored 24 points on the strength of 10-for-10 free throw shooting, while Draper posted a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds as Navy won a first-round matchup with Loyola Maryland, 64-48, on Tuesday night before a lively crowd at Alumni Hall.
“I’m really proud of our guys. I thought we played really, really hard tonight. We knew this was going to be a tough game,” said Navy coach Ed DeChellis, who reached a major milestone by earning his 400th career win.
“Holding a team to 48 … you would like to think you have a chance to win. Defensively, we’ve been much improved over the last five or six games. It’s a credit to our players. They finally bought into what we’ve been preaching for a long time.”
Navy harassed Loyola (7-25) into 27% field goal shooting (17-for-63), including 6-for-23 from 3-point range. Sophomore guard Deon Perry scored 21 points on 8-for-19 shooting for the Greyhounds, who had no one else score more than seven.
“We were going to look to take away their threes as much as we could,” DeChellis said. “Perry got going for a little bit, but then the guys locked down and did a good job guarding him in the second half.”
Aidan Kehoe, another sophomore who saw minimal action as a plebe, narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds as the Mids led from start to finish. Kehoe, who wasn’t even part of the rotation until two weeks ago, also had five assists and two steals.
Loyola, which has three players who stand 6 feet 10, only managed 16 points in the paint. That was largely because of the presence of the 6-10, 240-pound Kehoe. Golden Dike, Milos Ilic and Alonso Faure finished a combined 4-for-17 from the field.
“I thought the unsung hero of the game was Kehoe. He rebounded the ball, made some shots and clogged up the middle,” DeChellis said.
Seventh-seeded Navy (13-17) will play at No. 2 Boston University (15-16) in Thursday’s quarterfinal round. The Midshipmen and Terriers split the regular-season series with each winning at home.
“It feels great. This is what you live for — playing in March, playing in a tournament. We just need to keep our head down and do what we need to do,” Benigni said of extending the season.
It was obvious Benigni was determined to drive the ball hard to the basket from the outset. The hard-nosed point guard, who is generously listed at 5-10, repeatedly got to the rim to make difficult layups or get fouled.
“That’s been my go-to most of the year. I try to get downhill and create. I get into bodies and try to kick out or find guys down low. It all opens up whenever I get into the paint,” said Benigni, who shoots 84% from the free throw line. “I work on my free throws a lot and take pride in making them. Just step up to the line every time confident that I’m going to make them.”
Benigni became just the second Navy player to go perfect from the free throw line with at least eight attempts in a Patriot League Tournament game. Mike Heary, currently the color commentator on Navy radio broadcasts, went 16-for-16 in 1997.
DeChellis credits assistant coach Jon Perry with designing the offense to create gaps and alleys for Benigni and credited the youngster with finding them.
“[Benigni] has just gotten better and better as the season’s gone along. He gets downhill and has a knack for finishing over people. He draws a lot of fouls and is a tremendous free throw shooter,” DeChellis said. “He’s got the heart of a lion and loves to compete. The bigger the game, the more he enjoys it.”
DeChellis has now been a head coach for 28 seasons at East Tennessee State, Penn State and Navy. He has an overall career record of 400-441 and is 181-210 in 13 seasons at Navy.
“I’m really, really happy for my family. My wife Kim and three daughters and sons-in-law have been through this journey with me. You don’t do this profession by yourself,” DeChellis said. “I’m proud of the achievement, but there’s a lot that went into it. There’s been a lot of ups and downs, a lot of losses. It was nice to get No. 400 here at home, especially in March and in the tournament. I’ll remember it for a long time. I’m just very thankful.”
Benigni scored 12 points, most on acrobatic driving layups, as Navy took a 34-27 halftime lead. Draper and Kehoe combined for 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Mids, who led by as many as 11.
Draper scored four points in the opening minute to spark a strong start for Navy, which grabbed a 12-1 lead with five minutes elapsed. Faure made a 3-pointer and a layup on consecutive possessions to lead a Loyola rally that reduced the deficit to five.
Benigni hit two free throws then scored off a fastbreak layup as the Mids moved back ahead by nine. However, Perry heated up and drained three shots from beyond the arc in the span of two minutes as the Greyhounds got within one (28-27) with 2:11 remaining.
Benigni sank a floater in the lane with 17 seconds left as Navy closed the half on a 6-0 run. Perry had 12 points, all on threes, at the break.
It was more Benigni early in the second half as he scored off a driving layup, a difficult floater in the lane and a running half hook to cap an 11-1 lead that pushed the advantage back to double digits, 44-32, at the 15:16 mark.
Loyola missed seven straight field goals and committed three turnovers on 10 consecutive possessions during a 6 1/2-minute stretch. The Greyhounds made just one field goal and scored three points between the 19:01 and 8:59 marks.
Loyola coach Tavaras Hardy was asked if Navy’s tough defense or Loyola’s poor offense was the reason for the decisive drought.
“It was a combination of both. Obviously, Navy is very good defensively and is never going to let it be easy,” Hardy said. “I thought we ran some decent stuff and got some decent looks. You’ve got to finish in the paint. I thought we had some layups during that stretch that just didn’t go in.”
There would be no second-half rally for the visitors as the Mids managed to maintain a double-digit lead for the final 16 minutes. Benigni’s last two foul shots gave Navy its largest lead of the game of 19 points (64-45) with 2:06 to go.
Perry suffered an ankle injury during a Feb. 21 home game against Navy and missed three games. The Mount Carmel graduate returned to the court after a two-week layoff and did his best to keep the Greyhounds in the game.
Hardy said the fact that Perry has been unable to practice with the team made jumping right back into the starting lineup difficult for the Baltimore native and his teammates. Freshman guard Jordan Stiemke (C. Milton Wright), who has been playing really well of late, managed only one point on 0-for-7 field goal shooting. Sophomore guard Tyson Commander (John Carroll), who started at point guard in place of Perry, had five points on 2-for-9 shooting.
“Some of the other guys who had been playing well didn’t play so well tonight. It’s incumbent on the lead guard to make sure the other guys get going,” Hardy said. “When you’re worried about keeping in front of Benigni, worried about your ankle and worried about producing offensively, it’s hard to play that lead guard role after so much time away.”
Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals
No. 7 seed Navy at No. 2 seed Boston University
Thursday, 7 p.m.
Stream: ESPN+
Radio: 1430 AM