Friday, December 20
5:00:00 PM
Lehigh University
7-2
87
vs
78
Vermont
4-6
1
2
F
VERMONT
35
43
78
Lehigh
44
43
87
Hot shooting lifts Lehigh past Vermont, 87-78
12/20/2013 7:29:00 PM | Women's Basketball
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh women's basketball team shot a season high 53.4 percent (31-for-58) from the floor en route to a 87-78 win over Vermont in the opening round of the Christmas City Classic on Friday evening inside Stabler Arena. The victory marked the tenth straight year that Lehigh has won its first game of the Classic and will advance to the championship contest.
"Coming off the long layoff, they shot really well," said head coach Sue Troyan. "It wasn't the prettiest of wins but it was a very important win. We had a lot of different kids that were able to step up at different times throughout the game."
Lehigh was led by sophomore Kerry Kinek with 24 points, marking her 11th straight double-digit scoring game and her sixth 20-plus point performance through the season's first nine contests. The Whitehall, Pa. native shot 11-for-13 from the floor to finish with an impressive 84.6 shooting percentage. Sophomore Amina Affini and freshman Lexi Martins each set new career highs in scoring with their 14 and 11 points, respectively. Martins also tallied a team-leading eight rebounds. Freshman Kayla Burton tied her career high with 14 points, which included a personal best four three-pointers, and also dished a team-leading five assists. Junior Katie O'Reilly followed with eight points.
Lehigh shot 50.0 percent (8-for-16) from beyond the arc while holding the Catamounts to 36.8 percent (7-for-19). Vermont finished the game shooting 43.7 percent (31-for-71) from the field. The Catamounts out-rebounded Lehigh 40-33 but the Mountain Hawks forced 22 turnovers.
Lehigh started the game with a 5-0 run thanks to a Burton three-pointer and a Kinek layup. The same sequence followed to give Lehigh a 10-2 lead with 15:52 to play in the opening half. Three different Mountain Hawks made five of Lehigh's next eight shots to extend their lead to 19-10 with 11:20 left on the clock.
The Mountain Hawks used a 6-3 run in the next minute to grab the largest Lehigh lead of the first half at 25-15. Vermont heated up over the next two minutes and used a 10-3 run to pull within three at 28-25 with 7:46 to play in the opening stanza. Points from Kinek, sophomore Elizabeth Sharlow and junior Sarah Williams helped Lehigh take a more dominant lead as the scoreboard sat at 37-30. The hot offenses slowed down through the last few minutes of the game, but Lehigh slowly extended its advantage to 44-35 as the halftime buzzer rang.
Kinek hit the first bucket of the second half to open Lehigh's largest lead so far in the game at 46-35. Lehigh made six of its next seven shots, including three-pointers from Affini and Burton, and scored nine unanswered points to extend its lead to 19 at 58-39 with 16:27 to play. The Catamounts wouldn't back down and answered with nine straight points of their own to trim Lehigh's lead down to 58-50 before O'Reilly tossed in a layup to stop the streak.
The teams exchanged five points each as Lehigh held onto a double-digit lead at 65-55 with 10:35 to play. A jumper from Kinek and three-pointer from Burton gave Lehigh five more points, but Vermont's Kaylea Britton and Kylie Butler put six on the board for the Catamounts to make the score at 70-61 with 7:52 left on the clock.
Points from O'Reilly, Martins and Burton put six unanswered points on the board and extended the Mountain Hawk lead to 15 at 76-61 before an exchange of points eventually put the score at 80-66 with 4:12 to play. Vermont responded with seven straight points until O'Reilly broke the Catamounts' run once again, this time with a free throw to put the score at 81-73 with 1:37 to play. After two made free throws from senior Lindsay Hoskins, the Catamounts' Butler hit a layup and Sam Simononis sunk a trey to trim Lehigh's lead to 83-78 with 50.6 seconds left.
O'Reilly sunk two free throws and Williams followed with one of her own to pad Lehigh's lead and give the Catamounts no choice but to keep fouling the Mountain Hawks. Kinek capped off the night's scoring with a free throw of her own as the Mountain Hawks grabbed an 87-78 win to claim their seventh victory of the season.
The Mountain Hawks will compete in the championship game of the Christmas City Classic tomorrow (Saturday) at 4:30 p.m. against the winner of tonight's Delaware vs. Youngstown State game. Both the consolation and championship games can be viewed for free via the Patriot League Network and tickets can be purchased by calling 610-7LU-GAME or by visiting LehighTickets.com.
Like Lehigh women's basketball on Facebook and follow on Twitter for exclusive updates throughout the season.
Team Stats
VERMONT
LEHIGH
FG%
.437
.534
3FG%
.368
.500
FT%
.692
.654
RB
40
33
TO
22
21
STL
9
11
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
24
FGM
11
3FGM
1
FTM
1
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
4
FTM
0
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
2
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