Saturday, January 31
Boston, Mass.
2 p.m.
Lehigh University
15-5, 7-3PL
78
at
71
Boston University
4-17, 1-9PL
1
2
F
Lehigh
37
41
78
Boston University
38
33
71
Lehigh battles for 78-71 victory at Boston University
1/31/2015 4:30:00 PM | Women's Basketball
BOSTON – The Lehigh women's basketball team used a strong second-half stretch to pick up a hard-fought 78-71 victory Saturday at Boston University. The Mountain Hawks used a 33-for-41 (80.5 percent) showing from the free throw line to help down the Terriers as Lehigh picked up its third-straight victory and first-ever win at BU. The Mountain Hawks improve to 15-5 overall and 7-3 in league play, while the Terriers fall to 4-17 overall and 1-9 in the Patriot League.
"It was hard to get in any offensive or defensive flow today," said head coach Sue Troyan. "It probably wasn't our best effort on either end of the floor, but they found a way to win and make shots when we needed to. BU's record is not indicative of their team or talent at all, so I give them a lot of credit."
Sophomore Lexi Martins recorded her 14th double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Senior Katie O'Reilly also chipped in 16 points, while classmate Sarah Williams followed with a season-high 12 tallies. Junior Elizabeth Sharlow put together a strong performance as well, registering nine points and seven rebounds, while freshman Quinci Mann rounded out the balanced scoring with eight points.
The Mountain Hawks finished the game shooting 37.7 percent (20-for-53) from the field compared to BU's mark of 46 percent (20-for-53). Lehigh went 5-for-15 (33.3 percent) from downtown in addition to its strong showing from the free throw line. The Mountain Hawks held BU to 30.8 percent (4-for-13) from downtown and the Terriers went 9-for-11 (81.8 percent) from the charity stripe. Lehigh held a 37-35 rebound edge and forced 12 BU turnovers compared to its own nine.
Williams put the first five Lehigh points on the board over the opening two and a half minutes to help give the Mountain Hawks a 10-8 lead with just under 17 minutes left on the clock. Lehigh used a 5-0 run over the next three minutes to take a 13-8 advantage following a Sharlow layup. The Terriers were able to pull back within one at 15-14 thanks to a 6-2 streak that wound the first-half clock down to 11:50.
Sophomore Kiernan McCloskey drained a three-pointer twenty seconds later which was followed by another Lehigh trey, this time from junior Kerry Kinek, which extended Lehigh's lead to 21-14 with 10:26 on the clock. The Terriers answered with 14-3 run over the next four and a half minutes to eventually take a 28-24 lead with 5:50 left in the first half.
A pair of Mann free throws eventually stopped the BU streak and put Lehigh's first points on the board in nearly three minutes. A Mann three-pointer followed before four Lehigh free throws, two from Kinek and two from Martins, helped put together a 9-2 run that gave Lehigh a 33-30 lead with 3:44 to play. The Terriers responded with an 8-2 streak to take a 38-35 lead before O'Reilly converted a pair of free throws with 1.8 seconds left in the term to cut BU's lead to 38-37 at halftime.
The Terriers opened the second half on an 8-4 run to force a Lehigh timeout at 16:07 as BU held a 46-41 lead. A Martins offensive putback was followed by a layup from junior Amina Affini and three-pointer from junior Elizabeth Jordan as a 7-0 Lehigh run helped the Mountain Hawks regain the lead at 48-46 with 14:41 left to play.
BU was able to jump right back in front at 51-48 a minute later, but another Martins layup sparked a 7-2 Lehigh run that saw an Affini three-pointer and pair of Lehigh free throws to put the Mountain Hawks back up by two at 55-52 with under ten minutes on the clock. The score was tied twice over the next minute, but four made free throws and a Martins layup comprised a 6-0 Mountain Hawk run to put Lehigh ahead for good at 63-57 at the under-eight media timeout.
A Meghan Green layup stopped the Lehigh streak and BU made a few big baskets, but Lehigh had an answer for each as the Mountain Hawks controlled a 71-64 lead with just under four minutes to play. The Mountain Hawks extended their lead to as much as nine at 74-65 before Green scored six-straight points to pull BU within 76-71 with 24 seconds left on the clock, but a pair of Mann free throws closed out the game and sealed a 78-71 Mountain Hawk victory.
The Mountain Hawks remain on the road Wednesday to face Army. Free video will be available on the Patriot League Network with live audio coverage of 91.3 WLVR.
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Team Stats
LEHIGH
BU
FG%
.377
.460
3FG%
.333
.308
FT%
.805
.818
RB
37
35
TO
9
12
STL
7
4
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
16
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
12
Pts
16
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
6
Pts
12
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
5
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's Basketball
G/F
/ Women's BasketballG/F
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's BasketballG
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