Friday, November 14
Allentown, Pa. (PPL Center)
8:00 pm
Lehigh University
0-1
66
vs
77
Villanova
1-0
1
2
F
Lehigh
30
36
66
Villanova
32
45
77
Lehigh's strong opening-night effort comes up short in 77-66 loss to No. 12 Villanova
11/14/2014 10:58:00 PM | Men's Basketball
ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Lehigh gave No. 12 Villanova all it could handle Friday night in the season-opener for both teams at the new PPL Center, but the Wildcats took advantage of 23 Lehigh turnovers and a 19-4 edge on the offensive glass to down the Mountain Hawks 77-66.
Sophomore Austin Price scored a career-high 24 points and classmate Tim Kempton notched his seventh career double-double with 15 points and ten rebounds, but Villanova took the lead for good with just under 11 minutes to play and kept the Mountain Hawks at bay.
"It's unfortunate that we weren't able to make that play that needed to be made," Lehigh head coach Brett Reed said. "I thought we competed. I thought we played together. At times, we lost a little bit of our focus and our guys have to understand that there is still more to us – that we can give more."
The Mountain Hawks shot 55 percent (28-for-51) from the field including 6-of-16 from three-point land. Lehigh's defense limited Villanova to 38 percent, but the Wildcats scored 31 points off Lehigh's 23 turnovers.
Lehigh started the game hot from the field as the Mountain Hawks connected on five of their first six shots to lead 10-4 at the first media timeout. The Mountain Hawks helped overcome four early turnovers by holding Villanova to 1-for-8 from the field in the first five minutes and change.
A Josh Hart layup with 8:50 to play in the first half gave Villanova its first lead of the half. An offensive rebound by junior Justin Goldsborough led to a layup by Kempton, which gave Lehigh the lead back. A jumper by sophomore Miles Simelton re-established a six point Lehigh lead with just over five minutes remaining in the opening half.
Dylan Ennis put Villanova back in front with a layup with 2:45 to play in the half and the Wildcats took a 32-30 lead into halftime.
Lehigh shot 51.9 percent (14-of-27) in the opening half while limiting Villanova to just 30 percent (12-of-40). Villanova was just 3-of-23 from beyond the three point arc, while Lehigh was just 1-of-7. The Mountain Hawks were hurt by ten turnovers, which led to 12 Wildcat points.
Kempton led Lehigh's first-half effort with 11 points and six rebounds, while Price added seven points.
Ryan Arcidiacono led the Wildcats with nine points and five boards in the first half and Ennis added eight.
The Mountain Hawks came out of the locker room on fire with a pair of Price threes keying a 13-8 run. A transition three by senior captain Corey Schaefer put Lehigh up 43-38 and forced a Wildcat timeout.
Villanova pulled even on a Darrun Hilliard three-pointer with 12:30 to play and went in front on an Arcidiacono jumper less than a minute later. Price tied the game again with a layup before Daniel Ochefu put the Wildcats in front once again with a layup.
The Wildcats then used a 9-1 run, capped by an Ochefu jumper to take their largest lead at 59-51 with 8:44 to play.
Prince drained his fourth triple to bring the Mountain Hawks back within four with 4:18 to play, but an Ennis three off a missed free throw allowed the Wildcats to go back up by eight.
Villanova closed the game on a 17-8 run to hand Lehigh its sixth straight opening night loss.
"That was a very good team we faced," Reed said. "We knew they we're going to continue to miss shots and they ended up balancing their attack. We had to a better job in the second half protecting the paint and most obviously, rebounding the basketball. We had a couple unforced turnovers that gave them transition opportunities. Had we secured the basketball a little bit better and rebounded a bit better we might be talking about a different outcome tonight."
The Mountain Hawks will open their home schedule Tuesday night when Canisius visits Stabler Arena with game time set for 7 p.m. Tickets are still available and can be purchased at LehighTickets.com or by calling 610-7LU-GAME during normal business hours.
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Team Stats
LEHIGH
VU
FG%
.549
.380
3FG%
.375
.242
FT%
.400
.625
RB
33
40
TO
23
9
STL
6
13
Game Leaders
Pts
24
FGM
10
3FGM
4
FTM
0
Pts
15
FGM
6
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Pts
7
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
6
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
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