For a good part of Sunday’s game, it appeared as if Navy men’s basketball’s first meeting with Air Force in 20 years was going to be a disappointing rekindling of the rivalry for the Midshipmen. Then senior point guard Austin Benigni took over the game.
Benigni scored 13 consecutive points midway through the second half to spark the Midshipmen to a 61-56 come-from-behind victory over the Falcons. Benigni ended with a game-high 25 points, while senior center Aidan Kehoe posted a double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds to help Navy end Air Force’s four-game winning streak in the rivalry.
Before Benigni’s heroics, Navy (6-5) was struggling in pretty much every facet of the game, especially on the offensive side where baskets were hard to come by from the opening tip.
The Midshipmen missed 11 of their first 13 shots from the field to begin the game, but thankfully for the home team the Falcons couldn’t buy a basket either.
Air Force, which started three freshmen, missed six of seven attempts to start the game before stringing together three consecutive field goals to take an early 9-6 lead with under 12 minutes to play in the first half. Navy’s six points came from a pair of 3-pointers from wing guard Jinwoo Kim.
After the ensuing media timeout, both teams started to take the ball inside, seemingly because neither team could hit a jump shot. For Navy, that meant three consecutive possessions feeding Kehoe, whose baby hook shot was finding the bottom of the net.
It wasn’t until just over four minutes left in the first half that Benigni, who shot 0-for-4 in the first half, got on the scoring sheet via two made free throws — his only points of the first half.
Air Force led, 25-24, in the low-scoring first half as both teams were equally woeful from the 3-point arc as they combined to miss 17 of 20.
“I think that’s what Navy versus Air Force is supposed to be. I thought both teams came out and competed really hard, but the ball wasn’t going in the basket,” Navy coach Jon Perry said.
The second half started much like the first with plenty of missed shots. Navy and Air Force (3-8) managed to only make 4 of 17 shots to prevent either team from extending a lead beyond four points.
Benigni’s first made basket at the 15:31 mark pulled Navy within two points, 30-28, but Air Force who responded with a seven-point spurt capped off by a 3-pointer by forward Lucas Hobin. Perry called a timeout and decided it was time to change the tempo.
“I told [the team] we were going to press. It was pretty simple. At that point they were up nine and I felt like we needed to create some more energy and try to get the crowd in it,” Perry said.
“They are one of the slower teams in the country and they like to walk [the ball up] … so the philosophy was to try and speed them up and not give them so much time on the clock to run their plays because their plays take a long time to develop,” Benigni added.
It worked. Navy’s full-court press flustered the young Falcons and led to two turnovers and a quick four points. The team exchanged buckets and then Caleb Walker’s second chance layup with 9:16 gave Air Force a 41-34 lead.
That’s when Benigni took charge of the game. For the next 2 1/2 minutes, Navy’s floor leader was the only player to score for either team. A driving layup was followed by a steal, which led to a 3-pointer, a driving layup and then two more 3-pointers.
Benigni turned the seven-point Air Force advantage into a six-point Navy lead.
“My teammates and coaches kept telling me to shoot the ball,” Benigni said. “So I just let one go again and it went in that time. I was like, [I] might as well throw up another one and it went in and it kind of cascaded from there. It definitely came from my teammates and coaches trusting me to keep putting the ball up.”
Perry has seen Benigni come up big at crunch time many times before.
“He’s played a lot of basketball — he’s not scared of those moments. At that point in the game, whenever we needed him most, he rose to the occasion,” Perry said. “Everything he has gotten in his life he has earned because he works really, really hard.”
Benigni admitted “it’s definitely pretty cool to catch a heater like that.”
Air Force closed within two points, 51-49, with three minutes remaining, but Navy still had all of the momentum, and the crowd was finally into it after being muted much of the afternoon.
Donovan Draper’s thunderous dunk gave Navy a 53-47 lead, and then Kim beat the shot clock with a jumper with under a minute remaining to extend it to 57-48.
In addition to his 13-point solo run, Benigni scored six of Navy’s last 11 points including going 4-for-4 from the free throw line. As a team, the Midshipmen were 14 of 15 from the charity stripe.
“When you make more free throws or right at the number that your opponent shoots, that’s a good thing. You usually have success in winning the game,” Perry said.
After a long hiatus in the rivalry, Navy is scheduled to travel to Colorado Springs to face Air Force next fall. After seeing the Mids beat the Falcons for the first time since 2001, Perry is hoping this is the beginning of a yearly tradition that includes hardware as well.
“I’d love to keep it going and maybe get a Commander-in-Chief’s [trophy] for basketball,” he said. “We don’t want to take anything away from football. That’s special. We are not trying to do that by any means.”
Navy returns to action on Dec. 19 at Alumni Hall against Coppin State.
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