BETHLEHEM, Pa. – In a series where the home team has always emerged victorious, the Mountain Hawks continued that trend on Thursday night at Stabler Arena when they defeated the Binghamton Bearcats 70-49, snapping a five game-losing skid. The win also marked Lehigh’s first home win since November 19 when the Brown and White defeated Syracuse 55-48. The Mountain Hawks improve to 3-6 on the season with the win, while Binghamton falls to 2-6.
“It feels good to finally be able to shoot the ball as well as we did,” said head coach Sue Troyan. “Our defense has consistently kept us in games. Tonight when we shot the ball, it went in. It was an important game that will allow us to build our confidence that we can take the shots and make the buckets.”
At 11:46, Binghamton would take a 19-18 lead over the Mountain Hawks off a jumper by Erin Owens. Binghamton further increased its lead to 23-20 off a Muffy Sadler jumper, but Lehigh tied the score at 23 just 15 second later off one of Kristen Dalton’s three-pointers. Binghamton would take a 25-23 lead off a Rebecka Lindgren jumper, but it would be the last time the Bearcats had the lead as Lehigh tied the game at 25-25 off a jumper by senior Adrienne Blount. The Mountain Hawks would then go on an eight-point scoring run to make the score 33-25 with 3:04 remaining.
The Bearcats would get four straight points of ftwo jumpers by Juta Jahilo to close the gap, but the Mountain Hawks were not finished with their baskets as jumpers by senior Sara Ellis and Dalton made the score 37-29 as the two teams headed into halftime. It was the second straight game Lehigh scored at least 30 first half points
The Mountain Hawks got 21 of their 37 first half points from beyond the arc as freshman Alex Ross and Dalton were 2-for-2, senior Emily Geosits was 1-for-1 and Ellis was 2-for-3 from long range.
Five players ended the first half with eight points as Dalton, Ellis and Ross led the Brown and White, while Jahilo and Rebecka Lindgren led the Bearcats.
The Mountain Hawks only continued to connect in the second half as they outscored the Bearcats 18-5 with 11:22 remaining to bring the score to 55-34. The team shot 52.0 percent from the field in the second half to bring their shooting percentage to 47.4 percent - Lehigh’s highest field goal percentage since its season-opener against Long Island on November 12.
Four Mountain Hawks ended the game in double-digit points with Ellis and Dalton leading the way with 15 and 14 points, respectively. Blount tallied 12 points, while Ross chipped in with ten.
Lindgren led the Bearcats with 11 points, while Brianna Thompson and Jahilo each had ten.
Lehigh plays one more game before the end of the fall semester when it travels to Newark, N.J. to face New Jersey Institute of Technology on Saturday afternoon. Game time is scheduled for 2:00 pm. Live audio of the game will be broadcast in the Lehigh Valley on WLVR-FM (91.3) as well as worldwide online at lehighsports.com with streaming provided by Yahoo! Sports with Jeff Tourial calling the game.
