Navy men’s basketball handed first-year head coach Jon Perry a convincing victory in his debut.
Senior center Aidan Kehoe led the way, scoring 19 points on 9-for-11 field goal shooting as Navy traveled to South Carolina and soundly defeated Presbyterian, 76-55.
Junior guard Jordan Pennick added 13 points on the strength of three 3-pointers for the Midshipmen, who shot a sizzling 49% from the field. Senior point guard Austin Benigni totaled 11 points, five assists and four rebounds.
“I thought we did a lot of great things,” said Perry, who was promoted from associate head coach to succeed Ed DeChellis, who retired after 14 years. “Really excited to see those guys play someone else. We have been at this thing since Aug. 20. We were ready to play someone else. Excited about the first win.”
Jinwoo Kim contributed seven points, six rebounds and three assists for Navy, which took a commanding 37-17 halftime lead and never looked back. The Midshipmen led by double figures for the final 26 minutes of the game and Perry was able to use nine reserves with numerous players getting their first varsity experience.
Presbyterian held a 12-11 lead with 12:30 left before intermission, but made just one field goal over the rest of the half. Navy jumped ahead 16-12 and pushed the lead to 23-14.
“I don’t know if it was anything special that we did,” Perry said of the defense in the latter part of the first half. “As the half went on we settled in defensively. We started to make some adjustments in the timeouts. That’s a credit to the staff and the guys executing the game plan.”
Navy welcomes Yale into Alumni Hall for the Veterans Classic on Friday night. That game is expected to tipoff at approximately 8:30 p.m., following the opener between Tulsa and Rhode Island, which begins at 6 p.m.
Have a news tip? Contact Bill Wagner at bwagner@capgaznews.com, 443-534-0102 and x.com/@BWagner_CapGaz.
