Lehigh University
American
Lehigh can't hold on for win
9/15/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Bethlehem, PA – Scott Taylor scored a game high 16 points, but it wasn’t enough to power Lehigh past American, as the Eagles downed the Mountain Hawks 65-59 on Wednesday evening at Stabler Arena. The loss dropped Lehigh to 4-14 overall and 1-4 in the Patriot League. American remains atop the Patriot League standings, improving to 10-8 overall, 4-1 in the league. Lehigh opened the game with an 8-0 run that lasted the first two minutes of the game. American quickly came back with a 9-0 run of its own, taking a 9-8 lead with 12:46 to go in the half. The rest of the half was see-saw battle with Lehigh finishing the last two minutes on a 7-2 run. The second half was all Lehigh early before costly turnovers, 11 in the second half, gave American a spark. The Eagles took a 51-49 lead with nine minutes left and extended it to as much as four before Lehigh crawled back to tie it at 57 with just over three minutes left. The teams came out of the last media timeout (3:24) knotted at 57 and it stayed that way until American’s Patrick Doctor broke the deadlock on a free throw with 1:28 left in the game. The Eagles then took a 61-57 lead on a three-pointer by Glenn Stokes with 18 seconds left in the game making it a two-possession contest. After a turnover on the inbound play, Lehigh was forced to foul, and Brian Williams sunk a pair of free throws to give the Eagles a six-point lead (63-57) with 12 seconds to go. Two free throws by Lehigh’s Ra Tiah made it 63-59, before American iced the win with two Steven Miles free throws. Scott Taylor scored 12 first half points before finishing with 16. He shot 7-of-13 from the field and pulled down 8 rebounds for the Mountain Hawks. Sophomore Alex Jensen added 11 points shooting an impressive 3-of-4 from behind the arc. Junior Matt Logie chipped in 7 points and senior Bobby Mbom added 8 points for the Mountain Hawks. Lehigh shot 39% from the field but finished with 18 turnovers, after committing just seven in the first half. Patrick Doctor led American with 15 points and 5 rebounds in the win. Glenn Stokes scored 12 points and dished out 5 assists. The Eagles shot 33% from behind the arc and 49% from the field on the night. Lehigh returns to action on Saturday afternoon when it travels to Lewisburg to take on Bucknell at 3:15. Last time the Mountain Hawks landed at Davis Gym they lost in overtime after a half court shot by Brian Werner at the end of regulation sent the game to overtime.
