Lehigh University
Stony Brook
Lehigh can't hold early lead, falls at Stony Brook
12/5/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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STONY BROOK, N.Y. – After holding a nine-point lead with 13:53 remaining, Lehigh saw Stony Brook unleash a 22-4 run over a span of nine minutes that propelled the Seawolves to a 71-50 victory at Pritchard Gymnasium on Friday evening. With the loss, Lehigh’s first on the road this season, the Mountain Hawks fall to 5-3 overall, while Stony Brook ups its record to 4-3. Junior Marquis Hall (13) and sophomore Rob Keefer (10) both netted double figure points for the Brown and White, while Chris Martin sank all 11 of his free throw attempts en route to a game-high 19 tallies for the Seawolves.
Lehigh head coach Brett Reed gave his thoughts on what happened to the Mountain Hawks in the second half. “We fell apart. It was tough to go into the locker room and face our kids after that one. We got beat in just about every single phase of the game. We turned the ball over, we didn’t take good shots, we did not rotate on defense and we looked shell shocked to be honest.” He added, “We got out of sync there during Stony Brook’s big run and our execution in the half court was not very good.”
Following a slow moving, foul-filled first half, Lehigh took a 27-22 lead into intermission. Neither team shot it well in the opening 20 minutes as Lehigh connected on just 39 percent from the field, while Stony Brook hit on only 22 percent of its attempts. Hall led Lehigh with 10 points on three-of-six shooting and he also handed out a team-high two assists. Carrington pulled down eight of the Mountain Hawks 27 rebounds and added four points, while Keefer shot three-of-six from the floor and scored six first half points.
Stony Brook was led on offense by Chris Martin’s six points, while as a team the Seawolves handed out just one assist. Demetrius Young pulled down a team high four rebounds and SBU sank 7-of-11 free throw attempts.
Neither team scored for the game’s first 1:29 until Hall connected on a jumper to give Lehigh a 2-0 lead. The captain then drilled a three-pointer on the Mountain Hawks next possession to give them a 5-0 lead at the 18:09 mark. A second trifecta by Hall, this one with 16:26 on the clock, opened up a 10-2 lead for the Brown and White, and following a jumper by senior Matt Szalachowski, Lehigh led 12-4 with 14:18 left before halftime.
Stony Brook pulled to within five on a free throw from Muhammad El-Amin with 5:59 on the clock, but Keefer answered with a bucket to give Lehigh a seven-point advantage. A lay up by Young brought the home team to within five once again, this time with 4:36 left, but Keefer answered one more time, and Lehigh was in front 25-18. Carrington’s lay up with 1:35 on the clock proved to be the final field goal of the half.
Lehigh went up by nine on a jumper from Szalachowski with 15:59 on the clock, and again when Keefer sank a pair at the free throw line one minute later. A John Adams free throw gave Lehigh a 38-29 lead with 13:38 to go, but from there the Seawolves began their game changing run. Stony Brook took its first lead of the entire game at the 8:32 mark when Desmond Adedeji scored on the interior to put the Seawolves in front 43-42.
Back-to-back lay ups by Marques Cox, including one of the acrobatic variety gave SBU a nine-point advantage with 5:24 to go and following a pair of free throws by Martin at the 3:50 mark, Lehigh found itself down ten.
The Mountain Hawks were uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball, turning it over a season high 23 times, and they had just nine assists. Lehigh did out rebound the Seawolves 46 to 43 led by Carrington’s 13 caroms. The Mountain Hawks wound up shooting just 34.5% for the game, including a 30-percent clip in the final 20 minutes.
Stony Brook shot 53 percent in the second half and finished with a 37 percent showing, while Adedeji finished with a team best nine rebounds. Bryan Dougher (13) and Adedeji (11) joined Martin in double figures, while as a team, the Seawolves turned it over just 12 times.
Lehigh returns to action on Monday evening when the Mountain Hawks play host to the Albany Great Danes at Stabler Arena. Tip-off is set for 7:05 and tickets can be purchased by calling 610-7LU-GAME, by visiting the Lehigh Athletics Ticket Office, located in Grace Hall or by logging onto Lehighsports.com.
