American University rides 25 points from Matt Rogers to Patriot League championship, 74-52 over Navy

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.

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.

___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball