Ben Burnham scored a season-high 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting as host Virginia Tech outshot Navy 80-72 on Sunday in Blacksburg, Va.
Mylyjael Poteat tallied 12 points and Rodney Brown Jr., Ben Hammond and Jaden Schutt added 11 points apiece for the Hokies (5-6), who won their second game in a row.
The Hokies trailed for much of the first half but shot 52.9 percent as a team, including 10-of-18 from 3-point land and 16-of-18 from the free-throw line.
Navy (3-8) made a whopping 72.2 percent from the field (13 of 18) in the first half, including its first eight attempts of the game, but just 33.3 percent after halftime. The Midshipmen committed eight turnovers in each half and lost despite a 30-20 rebounding advantage.
Lysander Rehnstrom made four 3-pointers on his way to 14 points. Jordan Pennick matched him with 14, Austin Benigni scored 13 and Jinwoo Kim had 12.
Navy’s first three field goals were 3-pointers from Pennick, Donovan Draper and Rehnstrom that gave the Mids a quick 11-5 early. Virginia Tech answered with a quick 8-0 run, but it was all Navy for the next five minutes. Kim’s pair of free throws established a 27-15 lead with 9:09 left in the half.
Virginia Tech scored the game’s next 12 points to tie it. Brown made two triples in the surge, the second of which knotted the score.
The Hokies shot 7-for-11 from 3-point range in the first half and used the long ball to take back the lead. Burnham drilled one right at the buzzer for a 46-41 halftime lead.
Virginia Tech began inching away, but Rehnstrom (two 3-pointers) and Benigni (one) forged a quick 9-2 run to tie the game one last time at 59 with 11:58 left.
Navy went scoreless for the next 5:19, allowing Virginia Tech to build the advantage to as many as nine. The closest the Midshipmen would get was 70-66, but Burnham wrapped up his superb game with a 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock with 3:57 to go. Poteat’s three-point play about a minute later essentially sealed it.
–Field Level Media
