Lehigh University
Holy Cross
Lehigh can’t complete comeback
3/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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“We struggled to put the ball in basket all game,” said head coach Sue Troyan. “It seemed as if we were stuck on 40 [points] for a while. We made a run at the end of the game, but just couldn’t pull it out.”
Holy Cross jumped out to an early lead, scoring the game’s first seven points, and took a 17-5 lead, with 14:17 to play. The Crusaders were a perfect seven-of-seven on their field goal attempts during that stretch, while Lehigh hit just one-of-six field goals.
The Crusaders continued to knock down their shots over the next seven minutes, taking a 25-12 lead with 7:35 remaining in the half. Bethany O’Dell was a big contributor to the Holy Cross offensive outburst, knocking down all three of her three-point attempts and all five field goal attempts in the half.
The Mountain Hawks slowly started to mount a comeback with a little over six minutes left in the half. Lehigh outscored the Crusaders 8-3, receiving all of its points off free throws. Lehigh added one more free throw and a lay-up from Prosser, as it went into the half down 35-23.
Prosser led the team with seven points, while O’Dell had a half high 14 points for the Crusaders, who hit five-of-eight shots from downtown. The Mountain Hawks hit just 18.2 percent of their shots from the floor, but connected on 13-of-15 free throw attempts.
The Mountain Hawks came out shooting better to start the second half, hitting six of their first 11 shots, but the Crusaders continued to hit their shots and took a 57-40 lead with 5:32 to play.
Lehigh cut its deficit to 57-43, when Ross hit her 72nd three-pointer of the season, setting a new school record. Ross came back to put in a lay-up on Lehigh’s next possession, to make it 57-45 with 2:48 to play. Ross nailed another three-pointer after a steal from Claire Sullivan, making the score 57-48, with just over two and a half minutes remaining.
Ross scored knocked down another field goal, with 2:06 to play, as Lehigh was down just 57-50. The Crusaders were finally able to answer back on a two free throws from Gruzynski. It was the first points Holy Cross registered in just over three and a half minutes.
The Mountain Hawks could not find the basket over the final two minutes of play, as Holy Cross hung on for a 62-55 win.
Ross had a game high 15 points, while Prosser chipped in with 11 points and tied her career high with five steals. Sullivan added another four steals, as the Brown and White forced 16 steals and 19 turnovers in the game.
O’Dell led Holy Cross with 21 points, coming off seven-of-ten shooting from the field, including a perfect four-for-four from three-point range. Briana McFadden added nine points and six rebounds.
Third seeded Lehigh will take on sixth seeded Lafayette in the first round of the 2008 Patriot League Tournament at Army's Christl Arena. The game is scheduled to tip-off at 7:30 p.m. All Lehigh postseason games can be heard on local radio and on Lehighsports.com, with streaming provided by Yahoo! Sports.
