Navy Basketball Faces Wake Forest in NIT

0:00On March 17, Navy's men's basketball team wrapped up a stellar regular season atop the Patriot League, but fell short of the NCAA tournament, after a heartbreaking conference to my final loss. The midshipmen with 26 wins and 7 losses. The most victories for the program since the era of Hall of Famer David Robinson earned a spot. In the national invitation tournament, they'll face top-seated Wake Forest on Wednesday and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The team wrote an impressive streak of close wins before that one-point defeat to Boston University sealed their fate. Standout guard Austin Beniji, the league's player of the year, averages 18 points and 4.4 assists per game. Ford, Aiden Kihou, defensive player of the year, chips in 15.4 points and 10.9 rebounds. Coach John Perry, who earned league coaching honors, praised his player's hard work and pride in representing the Naval Academy. After a 15 and 19 record last year, Perry stuck with the same starting lineup, building

1:01a resilient squad ready to extend their season. Wake Forest enters with a 17 and 16 mark after an up and down year, never stringing together more than three straight wins. The demon deacons beat Virginia Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament before losing to Clemson. Leading score, Duke Harris averages 21.3 points, plus 6.5 rebounds and 1.3 steals. People team share a common foe in American University. Wake Forest won their opener there while Navy split the series. Navy now aims to bounce back against the host demon deacons in this early NIT clash.