Saturday, December 20
Tempe, Ariz.
3 p.m.
Lehigh University
7-1
61
at
81
Arizona State
9-1
1
2
F
Lehigh
29
32
61
Arizona State
44
37
81
Lehigh suffers first loss of season in 81-61 defeat at Arizona State
12/20/2014 5:15:00 PM | Women's Basketball
TEMPE, Ariz. – The Lehigh women's basketball team got out to a slow start and could never recover as Arizona State handed the Mountain Hawks their first loss of the season, 81-61, Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena in the opening contest of the ASU Classic. The Mountain Hawks fall to 7-1 with the loss as the Sun Devils improve to 9-1.
"We were a little slow getting out of the gate today and it's really hard to recover from that against a quality team like Arizona State," said head coach Sue Troyan. "I think it showed that we hadn't played in a couple weeks, but once we settled down and got into the game I thought we played pretty evenly with them. I think there's a lot we can learn from today's game and we'll come out here tomorrow ready to execute better."
Sophomore Lexi Martins led Lehigh with 15 points, 13 of which came in the second half. Junior Kerry Kinek recorded 14 points and a team-best eight rebounds. Senior Katie O'Reilly (12) and junior Elizabeth Sharlow (11) also finished in double-digits.
Lehigh shot 40 percent (22-for-55) from the field and 73.9 percent (17-for-23) from the charity stripe. Lehigh's perimeter threat was shut down as the Mountain Hawks went 0-for-12 from downtown. Arizona State shot 50.8 percent (32-for-63) from the field and 3-for-8 from beyond the arc. Five Sun Devils finished the game in double-figures, led by Katie Hempen with 15 points. Lehigh was outrebounded for just the second time this season as ASU held a 36-31 rebound advantage.
The Sun Devils scored the first 11 points of the game thanks to seven tallies from Hempen before a layup from senior Katie O'Reilly put Lehigh on the board with 16:37 left on the first-half clock.
By the next media timeout, the Sun Devils had jumped ahead 24-8 following a layup from Sophie Brunner with 12:44 left on the clock. Lehigh was able to cut the deficit to 12 at 24-12 following a Sharlow layup and pair of free throws. ASU answered nearly every Lehigh basket for the rest of the half and kept its lead in double digits as the Sun Devils took a 44-29 advantage into halftime.
Eleven of Lehigh's first-half points came from the free throw line as the Mountain Hawks wrapped up the half shooting 43 percent (9-for-21) from the field and 0-for-3 from downtown compared to ASU's 51.4 (18-for-35) shooting percentage.
The Mountain Hawks opened the second half on a 6-2 run that was capped off by a Kinek offensive rebound and jumper as Lehigh pulled within 13 at 48-35. The Sun Devils quickly answered and extended their lead to 17 at 54-37 at the first media timeout of the second frame.
A free throw from freshman Quinci Mann and a Martins layup cut the gap to 14, but ASU responded with a 6-2 run to go up 60-42. The Sun Devil lead remained at 18 at 62-44 with 10:56 to play before an O'Reilly layup sparked a 10-4 Lehigh run as the Mountain Hawks pulled within 12 at 66-54 following a Martins layup with 7:16 on the clock.
The Sun Devils responded with seven unanswered points to pull ahead 71-54 with 5:35 left on the clock. The Mountain Hawks were never able to recover as Arizona State picked up an 81-61 victory.
The Mountain Hawks wrap up the Arizona State Classic tomorrow (Sunday) at 2 p.m. EST against Eastern Illinois or Northwestern.
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Team Stats
LEHIGH
ASU
FG%
.400
.508
3FG%
.000
.375
FT%
.739
.933
RB
31
36
TO
16
12
STL
5
8
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
15
FGM
6
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Pts
14
FGM
7
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Pts
12
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
11
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
5
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's BasketballG/F
/ Women's BasketballF
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