Lehigh University
Colgate
Lehigh falls on road to Colgate
2/27/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Hamilton, NY – Junior Jessica DePalo scored 22 points on 10 of 22 shooting and senior Jana Ransom tossed in 13 of her own, but it wasn’t enough as Lehigh fell to Colgate 76-65 in a critical Patriot League contest. The Mountain Hawks were forced to play catch up all day and could never seem to grab control of the game. With the loss, Lehigh falls to 11-15 overall, and 8-5 in the Patriot League and currently sits in second place, while Colgate improves to 17-9 overall and a league best 9-4.
Colgate came out early and grabbed the lead with 53 percent shooting in the first stanza. Leading the charge was Malissa Burke, who connected on five of nine shots en route to 12 first half points. The Raiders hit all four of their free throw attempts and at the half, were clinging to a slim 40-37 lead. Lehigh was led by DePalo’s 12 points on five of ten shooting, and the Rumson, NJ native also pulled down three rebounds. The Mountain Hawks were only able to connect on 49 percent of their shots, but did sink 80 percent from the free throw line.
The second half was tight throughout, with no team able to pull ahead by eight,, until the final two minutes when the Mountain Hawks were forced to foul and Colgate hit its free throws. Lehigh did manage to take a slim one point lead at the 15:36 mark, but it was short lived as Colgate came right back and tied the game, and eventually took the lead, which it would not relinquish.
For the game, Lehigh hit 40 percent from the field, and just 20 percent from beyond the three-point arc, while Colgate sunk almost 48 percent of its shots. Burke wound up with 20 points for the Raiders and was joined in double figures by Emily Braseth with 16, Chigozie Ozor with 11 and Milaina Lagzdins with ten. DePalo grabbed a team-high eight boards for Lehigh and junior Chantal St. Laurent dished out five assists on the day.
Lehigh returns to action on Sunday as the Mountain Hawks travel to Worcester, MA to take on the Holy Cross Crusaders. Tip-off is set for 1:00 and all of the action can be heard live in the Lehigh Valley on 95.1 WLVR and worldwide on Lehigh’s website at lehighsports.com.
