Wednesday, January 15
Washington, D.C
7:00:00 PM
Lehigh University
(8-8, 1-4)
61
at
70
American
(11-5, 4-1)
1
2
F
LEHIGH
19
42
61
AMERICAN
33
37
70
Lehigh’s slow start leads to 70-61 loss at American
1/15/2014 9:36:00 PM | Women's Basketball
WASHINGTON – An early deficit was too much to overcome once again for the Lehigh women's basketball team, as the Mountain Hawks fell at American, 70-61, on Wednesday evening inside Bender Arena. The Eagles won their third straight and improved to 4-1 in the Patriot League with the win, while Lehigh fell to 1-4 and 8-8 overall.
"We've really been digging ourselves in a hole in the first half," said head coach Sue Troyan. "We took better shots in the second half and Kerry Kinek stepped up both offensively and defensively which really helped us. Hopefully we can carry some of the second-half momentum into Saturday's game against Holy Cross."
Kinek led all scorers with 21 points and five blocks, while also tallying a team-leading five assists. It marked the sophomore's seventh 20-plus point game this season and 18th straight double-digit effort. Junior Katie O'Reilly followed with 11 points, while senior Lindsay Hoskins and freshman Kayla Burton each chipped in eight. Freshman Lexi Martins led Lehigh with five rebounds.
Five Eagles scored in double figures en route to American's victory, led by Geleisa George with 15 points. Sarah Kiely pulled down a game-high 11 boards, while Alexis Dobbs dished seven assists.
Despite shooting 51.7 percent (15-of-29) from the floor in the second half, the Mountain Hawks finished the game with a 38.2 percentage (21-for-55). The Eagles shot 41.0 percent (25-for-61) from the field. American held a 44-35 rebound advantage and scored 13 second-chance points compared to Lehigh's three.
The Mountain Hawks started the game with a 6-0 run and held the Eagles scoreless for the first three minutes of the contest. Lehigh held onto the lead until an American layup put the Eagles ahead 9-8 with 13:41 on the clock. Down 15-11, O'Reilly drained a three to pull the Mountain Hawks within one with 10:35 to play.
American erupted on a 15-0 run and held Lehigh scoreless for nearly eight minutes until a Kinek jumper finally added Lehigh points to the board with 2:52 left in the half. A layup from sophomore Amina Affini and free throw from Martins put three more point on the board for the Mountain Hawks, but Lehigh headed into the locker room down 33-19, in what was the Mountain Hawks' lowest scoring half of the season.
Kinek opened the second half scoring, but American promptly responded with six straight points. The Mountain Hawks were able to make a few more baskets over the next couple of minutes, but American held onto a commanding 46-27 lead with just over 15 minutes on the clock.
Lehigh responded with a 9-2 run over the next five minutes that began with a conventional three-point play from Kinek and was capped off with a Burton three-pointer to narrow American's lead to 12 at 48-36 with 10:35 to play.
The Mountain Hawks were able to cut the lead to ten on multiple occasions over the next three minutes, but American kept surging and eventually worked their lead back to 15 at 57-42 with 7:10 remaining.
The Eagle lead stayed in double digits until Lehigh narrowed it to nine with just over two minutes to play with the help of six straight points, four of which came from the charity stripe. A Kinek fade-away jumper made it an 8-0 run and pulled the Mountain Hawks within seven with 1:17 to play, but Lehigh had no choice but to foul the Eagles. American went 7-for-8 from the charity stripe in the final minute to hold off the Mountain Hawk surge.
The Mountain Hawks return home to face Holy Cross Saturday at 2 p.m. inside Stabler Arena. The contest can be viewed for free on the Patriot League Network and fans can purchase tickets by calling 610-7LU-GAME or by visiting LehighTickets.com.
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Team Stats
LEHIGH
AMERICAN
FG%
.382
.410
3FG%
.313
.263
FT%
.700
.652
RB
35
44
TO
19
18
STL
7
7
Game Leaders
Pts
21
FGM
9
3FGM
2
FTM
1
Pts
11
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
4
Pts
8
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
8
FGM
2
3FGM
2
FTM
2
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