Navy men’s basketball continues to check the boxes.

After clinching their first outright Patriot League regular-season championship since 1997 earlier in the week, the Midshipmen accomplished another major goal on Saturday at Christl Arena in West Point, New York.

Senior point guard Austin Benigni exploded for 27 points and made all 12 free-throw attempts as Navy routed archrival Army, 81-63. Senior center Aidan Kehoe notched his fifth straight double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Mids, who took a double-digit lead midway through the first half and maintained it the rest of the way.

Junior guard Jinwoo Kim had a solid all-around game with 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists for Navy (23-6, 15-1), which had five players reach double figures. Senior forward Donovan Draper totaled 10 points, six rebounds and four assists, while junior guard Cam Cole also came off the bench to score 10 points.

Navy has now won the Star game in five of the past six seasons. Navy’s basketball sweep of Army on Saturday also clinched victory in the Star Series.

“It was great to get that sweep and earn two Stars and help the athletic department win the series,” Navy coach Jon Perry said. “It was a great day for Navy men’s and women’s basketball.”

Junior point guard Ryan Curry made a 3-pointer on the opening possession of the game, but that marked the last time Army would lead. Navy took a commanding 43-27 halftime lead with defense setting the tone. The Black Knights made just 9 of 26 field goals and went 3-for-16 from 3-point range in the first half.

“As a team, we had two really good days of preparation, so the guys were focused and locked in,” Perry said. “I thought we did a great job defensively to start the game. We also did a good job of rebounding and taking care of the ball in that first half.”

Sophomore guard Jaxson Bell scored 17 points to pace Army (11-18, 5-11), which cut the deficit to single digits on a couple of occasions in the opening six minutes of the second half. Benigni made a 3-pointer to cap a lightning-quick 8-0 run that gave Navy a 17-point lead.

The Mids moved ahead by as much as 20 points midway through the fourth quarter and were never threatened again.

Curry, Army’s leading scorer, was limited to eight points on 2-for-9 shooting. The Black Knights wound up shooting 37.7% from the field and 29.4% on 3-pointers for the game.

“It’s five guys committed to guarding the ball. Army runs good stuff — it’s a lot of five-out and it puts you into rotations. We started switching some things, and that takes five guys working together,” Perry said. “I think it takes the wind out of a team’s sails when you’ve got a team that’s committed to defending for 40 minutes.”

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Benigni further polished his resume for Patriot League Player of the Year honors with the performance. He leads the conference in 3-point shooting percentage and free throw shooting percentage, while ranking second in scoring (18.5 points per game) and fourth in assists (4.3).

“Austin really settles us offensively and gets the ball where it’s supposed to be. It makes life easier when you have a guy like that out there running your team,” said Perry, who did criticize Benigni for not getting a single rebound against Army.

Kehoe is arguably the top challenger to Benigni for Patriot League Player of the Year, which is voted on by the league’s coaches. The 6-foot-11, 246-pound pivot leads the nation in shooting percentage and the league in rebounding. He is averaging a double-double with 15.5 points and 10.8 rebounds.

Kehoe posted his 16th double-double of the season on Saturday with five of his 11 rebounds coming on the offensive end.

“Aidan just continues to get the job done on both ends of the floor,” Perry said. “Today, I thought he worked really hard going to the offensive glass. Because it took two guys to block him out sometimes, it allowed other guys to get offensive rebounds.”

Navy has two regular-season games remaining — at Loyola Maryland on Wednesday and at home against Colgate on Saturday. Navy can become just the second school to post a 17-1 conference record — joining Colgate, which accomplished the feat in 2023.

Meanwhile, the Midshipmen now have their most overall wins (23) since the 1999-2000 season. Navy’s winningest seasons in men’s basketball came during the David Robinson era when it went 30-5 in 1985-86 and 26-6 in 1986-87.

Have a news tip? Contact Bill Wagner at bwagner@capgaznews.com, 443-534-0102 and x.com/@BWagner_CapGaz.