Lehigh University
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Dartmouth
Mountain Hawks win third straight road game
11/29/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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HANOVER, N.H. – Lehigh won its third consecutive road contest on Saturday afternoon with a 73-60 victory over the Dartmouth Big Green at Leede Arena. Junior Zahir Carrington scored a game-high 15 points to go along with a career-best 14 rebounds as he registered his second career double-double. Carrington was one of ten Mountain Hawks who scored as the Brown and White improves to 5-1 on the season and drops Dartmouth to 1-4.
Also in double figures for Lehigh on Saturday was Dave Buchberger who added 11 points in the win. Lehigh struggled from the field, connecting on just 38 percent of its shots, including a 29-percent clip from three-point range, but the Mountain Hawks forced Dartmouth into a 33-percent showing. Lehigh blocked a season best six shots, led by Phil Anderson’s four, while sophomore Prentice Small dished out a career-best nine assists. Senior John Gourlay finished the game with a season-high eight points, which came on four-of-five shooting.
Lehigh head coach Brett Reed offered his thoughts following the win. “This was a difficult game for us to come all the way up here, especially after an emotional win over Rutgers and it could have be easy to look forward and focus our attention on our upcoming game with St. Joseph’s, but I’m glad that our guys were able to pull through and build an early lead, play solid, stingy defense, and then make free throws to close it out.”
Reed continued, “I thought Zahir Carrington gave us some points down low when we needed them and of course he did a nice job on the backboards. I thought Phil Anderson did a nice job on the glass. He didn’t always come away with the ball, but he was able to keep it alive and Zahir ultimately got to it. It was also nice to see John Gourlay step up and come through for us today.”
Dartmouth was led in scoring by Dan Biber and his 15 points, while Kurt Graeber led the Big Green with ten rebounds.
Anderson got things started for Lehigh with a three-pointer on the Mountain Hawks opening possession. The teams remained close during the early going until Lehigh unleashed a 10-2 run that put the visitors in front 20-11 with 6:59 remaining in the opening half. The lead swelled to double digits on a Marquis Hall jumper, and following a pair of free throws from Carrington at the 2:35 mark, Lehigh found itself ahead 30-17. Small hit a jumper with 1:27 left, got fouled on the play and hit the ensuing free throw to send the Mountain Hawks into halftime with a 33-20 advantage.
Lehigh connected on 48 percent of its field goals in the opening 20 minutes, and sank all three of its free throw attempts. Dartmouth meanwhile started cold, connecting on only 27 percent of its first half field goal attempts.
As the second half began, Lehigh picked up right where it left off before halftime, extending to a 16-point cushion on the strength of a bucket by sophomore Rob Keefer. Carrington slammed home a Hall assist at the 13:48 mark and Lehigh went in front 45-27. Dartmouth finally got the Lehigh lead under double digits when Biber connected from downtown with 9:31 on the clock, but Lehigh scored the game’s next four points, all from the foul line, to go back in front by 13. The lead swelled to as many as 17 in final minutes, and on the strength of a 23-of-27 showing at the free throw line, Lehigh was able to close out the Big Green.
Lehigh is back in action on Tuesday evening when the Mountain Hawks play host to Atlantic-10 member St. Joseph’s at Stabler Arena. Tip-off is set for 7:05 and tickets can be purchased in one of three ways: by calling 610-7LU-GAME, by visiting the Lehigh Athletics Ticket Office, located in Grace Hall, or by logging onto Lehighsports.com.
