Thursday, December 4
Philadelphia, Pa.
7 p.m.
Lehigh University
7-0
73
at
71
Saint Joseph's
2-5
1
2
F
Lehigh
41
32
73
Saint Joseph's
35
36
71
Mann’s game-winner helps Lehigh remain undefeated with 73-71 victory at Saint Joseph’s
12/4/2014 9:30:00 PM | Women's Basketball
PHILADELPHIA – A layup from freshman Quinci Mann with 4.4 seconds left on the clock lifted the Lehigh women's basketball team to a 73-71 victory at Saint Joseph's Thursday evening inside Hagan Arena. The victory keeps Lehigh's perfect record intact as the Mountain Hawks move to 7-0 on the season. Saint Joseph's, a team that has appeared in back-to-back NCAA Tournaments, falls to 2-5 with the loss.
"I was really proud of how they competed and I thought they executed well in both halves," said head coach Sue Troyan. "St. Joe's is a very good team and they made a run at the end, but I'm very proud of how our kids stayed together and stayed focused. Obviously Quinci came up with a big shot for us and we couldn't be happier with the result."
Mann's game-winner capped off a night in which the rookie scored a team-best 14 points to go along with a five rebounds and three assists. The San Francisco native's 14 points came from a 5-for-7 showing from the field and 4-for-4 effort from the free throw line. Senior Katie O'Reilly followed with 13 points and junior Kerry Kinek chipped in 11 points and six rebounds. Sophomore Lexi Martins tallied eight points and seven rebounds while senior Sarah Williams also added eight points.
The Mountain Hawks finished the game shooting 56.4 percent (31-for-55) from the field and 46.2 percent (6-for-13) from three-point range. Lehigh held Saint Joseph's to a 36.2 percentage (25-for-69) from the floor and just 1-for-8 from downtown. The Hawks converted 20 of 24 free throw attempts compared to Lehigh's 5-for-7. For the first time this season, Lehigh was outrebounded as SJU held a 35-34 edge on the glass.
The Hawks scored the first basket of the game before a pair of jumpers from Kinek and O'Reilly put Lehigh up 4-2. The Hawks jumped ahead 5-4 following a conventional three-point play from Ciara Andrews. Saint Joseph's held on to a narrow lead until a layup from Williams put Lehigh up 12-11 with 13:25 to play in the opening half.
The lead exchanged hands four times over the next five minutes as St. Joe's held a 24-23 advantage at the under-eight media timeout. Junior Elizabeth Jordan hit her first trey of the game with 7:15 on the clock to give the Mountain Hawks a 26-24 lead, but Saint Joseph's tossed in the next four points to reclaim a 28-26 advantage with 6:18 left on the clock.
A layup by Martins tied the game at 28 ten seconds later and sparked an 11-3 Lehigh run that took three minutes off the clock and saw another three-pointer from Jordan in addition to points from O'Reilly, Mann and junior Amina Affini as the Mountain Hawks took a 39-31 lead with 3:05 on the cock. The Hawks were able to cut a pair of points off Lehigh's lead, but the Mountain Hawks carried a 41-35 lead into halftime.
Ashley Robinson scored the first four points of the second half as the Hawks pulled within two at 41-39, but an Elizabeth Sharlow three-pointer ignited a 9-2 Lehigh run that featured four points from Mann to give the Mountain Hawks a 52-41 lead with 16:44 left to play.
A Martins three-pointer gave Lehigh a double-digit lead at 55-43 with 15:01 left on the clock. A Woods jumper helped ignite 10-3 SJU streak in which the Mountain Hawks uncharacteristically struggled to collect rebounds as the Hawks closed the gap to 58-53 with 10:39 to play.
Lehigh answered with a 9-1 spurt that started with a Williams jumper and ended with five-straight points from Kinek to put Lehigh ahead 67-55 with just over seven minutes to play. The Hawks eventually used a 9-2 run of their own to pull within five at 69-64 as the clock wound down to 3:34 at the final media timeout.
A pair of Robinson free throws followed to pull the Hawks within three with under three minutes to play, but Mann slashed to the basket on Lehigh's following possession and drew a foul before converting a pair of free throws of her own to re-extend Lehigh's lead to five at 2:39. A pair of Lehigh fouls led to three more points from the charity stripe for the Hawks as the clock wound down to 31.3 seconds with Lehigh up 71-69.
Saint Joseph's Natasha Cloud tossed in a layup with 13.6 seconds remaining to tie the game at 71. Following a Lehigh timeout, Mann worked her way around the Hawk defense to the basket and tossed in a layup with 4.4 seconds on the clock. SJU couldn't convert on its final chance as an Andrews jumper missed and the Mountain Hawks walked away with the 73-71 victory.
The Mountain Hawks will now have a 16-day break from game action for finals. Lehigh heads to the ASU Classic on Dec. 20 and 21 to take on host Arizona State and Eastern Illinois/Northwestern. Live audio coverage will be available on 91.3 WLVR and wlvr.org.
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Team Stats
LEHIGH
SJU
FG%
.564
.362
3FG%
.462
.125
FT%
.714
.833
RB
34
35
TO
19
9
STL
2
6
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Pts
13
FGM
6
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
11
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Pts
8
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's BasketballG/F
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
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