Matt Rogers scored 25 points and second-seeded American University defeated Navy 74-52 on Wednesday night to claim the Patriot League Tournament Championship.
American (22-12) has made three previous trips to the NCAA Tournament, the last in 2014.
Geoff Sprouse, Rogers and Colin Smalls all made 3-pointers as the Eagles pushed their lead from 11 points to 56-38 with 12 minutes left in the second half. The lead reach 20 on a tip-in by Rogers with about four minutes left and his 3-pointer with two minutes remaining made it 72-48.
Smalls finished with 11 points. Sprouse made 3 of 4 3-pointers and scored nine points off the bench. He had three assists.
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Austin Benigni had 18 points and Donovan Draper had 11 points and 12 rebounds for Navy. It was the fourth double-double and ninth double-digit rebound game of the season for Draper, listed as a 6-foot-4 forward.
American led all the way and made 10 of 14 shots inside the 3-point arc and 6 of 13 beyond it for 55% overall shooting in the first half. American led 37-28 at halftime. It was 20-15 before Sprouse's 3-pointer kick-started an extended 13-6 run that gave the Eagles a 33-21 lead with three minutes left in the half.
Fifth-seeded Navy, which defeated No. 1-seed Bucknell 83-77 in the semifinals, finishes the season at 15-19 overall.
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