WASHINGTON - For the first time since 2009, the Patriot League Championship will be decided in Bender Arena as second-seeded American University men's basketball hosts fifth-seeded Navy on Wednesday, March 12 at 7 p.m. With a conference title and an NCAA Tournament berth on the line, the Eagles are making their first championship game appearance since 2015 and aiming for their first league title in 11 years.
Quick Info
- Date/Time: Wednesday, March 12; 7 pm
- Site: Washington, D.C. (Bender Arena)
- Series History: Navy leads 55-52
- TV: CBS Sports Network
- Talent: Jason Knapp, Mo Cassara, Keiana Martin
- Last PL Championship for American: 2014
- Last PL Championship for Navy: 1998
Inside the Series
- This will be the 108th meeting between American and Navy. The series was tied 52-52 in the middle of last season, but the Mids have since won three in a row.
- Navy won 71-65 in Bender on March 2, 2024, again in this season's first meeting in Annapolis on Jan. 2, 81-58, and for a third time by a score of 68-60 in Bender Arena on Feb. 26.
- Navy leads 3-2 in the last five games. The Eagles' last win was a 59-42 road victory in Annapolis on Feb. 14 of last season.
- AU is 24-18 in home games against Navy, but has dropped six straight to the Mids in Bender. The Eagles' last home win was just prior to the pandemic, on Feb. 19, 2020.
What to Know About American
- AU now has its first 21-win season since a 22-9 record in 2010-11. It was already its first 20-win season since 2013-14.
- The Eagles finished with 13 PL wins, also the most since 2013-14, with both 2024-25 and 2013-14 tying 2008-09 for most PL wins in program history (13).
- The Eagles are co-regular season PL champions with Bucknell, but got the No. 2 seed after the PL's tiebreaking procedure.
- Previously, the last regular season championship for AU was in 2009, which was the last time American hosted the Patriot League Championship game.
- The last PL Tournament Championship for AU was in 2013-14. The Eagles also won in 2008 and 2009 for a total of three titles overall. The Eagles last appeared in the PL Tournament Championship Game in 2015.
- Eleven of AU's games this season have been decided by five or fewer points, and the Eagles have won nine of those, including a Lincoln Ball buzzer-beater over Lehigh on Jan. 22, an OT win at Lehigh on Feb. 8, and a win on a Matt Rogers jumper with 3.2 seconds left against Lafayette on Feb. 10.
- All three graduate students (Ball, Rogers, and Colin Smalls) have hit a crucial late shot this season to help win a game.
- Head coach Duane Simpkins is one of 25 finalists for both the Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award, and the Ben Jobe Award, honoring the top minority coach in Division I basketball.
- Graduate student Matt Rogers is an All-PL First Team honoree for the second time (earned Second Team honors as a junior).
- Senior Elijah Stephens is an All-PL Third Team honoree (was Second Team and Defensive Team as a junior, and All-Rookie as a freshman).
- Sophomore Greg Jones is a PL All-Defensive Team honoree (first honor).
- Rogers, who ranks sixth all-time at AU with 1,834 points, averages 16.8 points per game to rank fourth in the PL. He's hitting shots at a 55.5 percent clip, good enough for fifth in the PL. His three-point FG pct of .407 ranks seventh in the PL.
- The Eagles are coming off a 72-62 win over third-seeded Colgate in their semifinal. It ended Colgate's run of four consecutive PL Championships. After trailing early, AU used lockdown defense and a balanced scoring attack to wear down the Raiders. Five players scored in double figures for the first time in over a year, including Elijah Stephens with 16 and Matt Rogers adding 15.
What to Know About Navy
- Navy is riding a five-game winning streak as it heads to Bender Arena for the Patriot League championship game.
- Most recently, the Midshipmen knocked off top-seeded Bucknell in Lewisburg on Sunday afternoon, 83-77.
- Junior guard Austin Benigni led the way with 24 points, but he netted 20 of those from the free throw line, where he went 20-of-22. Navy's leading scorer this year at 18.8 a game, he was just 2-for-12 from the floor at Bucknell.
- Navy led by as many as 12 and held off the Bison late.
- Although the Middies are red hot, including a 68-60 win at Bender Arena on February 26 that is the Eagles' lone conference home loss of the season, they are just 15-18 overall on the season.
- Navy would be just the 20th team to reach the NCAA Tournament with a record below .500 since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The last was Texas Southern at 14-20 in 2022-23.
Keep Up With Us
