Yes, really — Navy beat No. 25 Virginia in men’s basketball

For the first time since 1986, the Navy Midshipmen have beaten an opponent ranked in the Top 25 of the Associated Press Poll.

Yes, the last time this happened, David Robinson was a Midshipman.

At John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, it was pretty much all Midshipmen from start to finish as they either held a lead or were tied for the final 35 minutes against No. 25 Virginia.

You know, the 2019 National Champions. The Cavaliers of the ACC. The ones coached by Tony Bennett.

John Carter Jr. led the way for Navy with 19 points as the Midshipmen beat UVA 66-58.

The Mids pulled off the victory — in part — from behind the arc, as they shot a very impressive 52.4% from deep, hitting 11 threes-pointers.

Navy won in the paint too though, owning the rebounding advantage by a margin of 35-30. Virginia only outscored Navy by four points in the paint,

Carter picked up right where he left off from last season by leading the Mids in scoring on Tuesday. The 6-foot-4 guard from Spring Hill, Tennessee hit five threes, including the game clincher to make it a nine-point game with less than a minute remaining.

Junior guard Sean Yoder followed him with 15 points and six rebounds of his own.

Some may say that Virginia just struggles against mid-major teams from Maryland. But maybe Navy just has a damn good basketball team. The Mids are coming off a season where they won the Patriot League regular season title for the first time since 1997. When Navy lost to Loyola in the Patriot League tournament last season, they were 13th in RPI, 85th in NET and 145th in KenPom.

The Midshipmen will have a chance improve their resume even more, and beat another ACC team from Virginia, on Friday as they host Virginia Tech in the Veterans Classic in Annapolis.

AAE editor Mitchell Northam contributed to this report.