Rafriel Guthrie had 16 points off the bench and Jerrelle Benimon dominated the boards as Towson opened its new arena with a 72-45 victory over Navy on Friday.

The Tigers, playing their first game in the 5,200-seat SECU Arena, used a 10-2 run at the end of the first half to take a 39-23 lead into intermission. The visiting Midshipmen then went cold to start the second half, managing just one basket and four points in the first nine minutes. The score was 52-27 Towson when Kevin Alter finally broke the ice with a three-pointer, but Towson kept pouring it on and led by as many as 31 points late in the game.

Benimon, the Colonial Athletic Association Preseason Player of the Year, had a tough time shooting the basketball, going 1-8 from the field and finishing with six points. But he finished with 17 rebounds, and the bench more than made up the slack. Led by Guthrie and Four McGlynn, who had 15 points on five three-pointers, the Towson bench outscored its Navy counterparts 35-16.

Kendall Knorr led Navy with nine points. Worth Smith, the team's leading returning scorer, battled foul trouble and made just two of his six shots to finish with four points. The Midshipmen only turned the ball over nine times, but shot 19 of 61 (31.1 percent) from the field and 3 of 19 from beyond the arc.