ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Brandon Venturini scored 19 points and had a career-high eight assists to lead Navy to a 71-61 victory over Colgate Saturday night.

Navy led throughout but Colgate charged back to trail only 35-32 after Chad Johnson made a layup to start the second half. Navy quickly responded with seven unanswered points. Clayton Graham hit a jump shot to cut the lead to 43-39 with 12:49 remaining. Navy answered quickly again and led 57-45 following a layup by Worth Smith, who finished with 16 points.

Navy (9-16, 4-10 Patriot League) easily won the battle in the paint also, scoring 32 points compared to 18 for Colgate. The Midshipmen made 54.3 percent of their field goal attempts. They made 7 of 9 3-point attempts in the first half, but missed all six attempts in the second period.

Austin Tillotson had 24 points and Murphy Burnatowski added 13 for Colgate (9-16, 3-11).