Saturday, February 21
Easton, Pa.
2 p.m.
Lehigh University
17-9; 9-7
51
at
59
Lafayette
13-14; 6-10
1
2
F
Lehigh
22
29
51
Lafayette
29
30
59
Mountain Hawks fall in tough battle at Lafayette, 59-51
2/21/2015 4:32:00 PM | Women's Basketball
EASTON, Pa. – The Lehigh women's basketball team erased a halftime deficit to come back and take a second-half lead over Lafayette Saturday afternoon, but couldn't hold on and fell 59-51 at Kirby Sports Center. Lehigh falls to 17-9 overall and 9-7 in league play while the Leopards improve to 13-14 overall and 6-10 in the Patriot League.
"We struggled to shoot the ball again and didn't execute very well," said head coach Sue Troyan. "We came back in the second half, but we'll have to regain focus heading into the final two games of the regular season."
Freshman Quinci Mann led Lehigh with a career high-tying 16 points, 14 of which came in the second half. Sophomore Lexi Martins tallied her 17th double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Junior Kerry Kinek followed with eight points and seven boards.
The Mountain Hawks wrapped up the game shooting 31.7 percent (20-for-63) from the field, 14.3 percent (2-for-14) from three-point range and 60 percent (9-for-15) from the free throw line. Lafayette shot 38.7 percent (24-for-62) from the field, 40 percent (4-for-10) from downtown and 63.6 percent (7-for-11) from the charity stripe. The Leopards held a slim 44-43 rebound advantage.
The Leopards quickly got out to a 6-2 lead before baskets from senior Katie O'Reilly and Kinek pulled Lehigh within three at 9-6. Lafayette scored the next four points, but a layup from junior Elizabeth Sharlow was followed by a conventional three-point play from senior Sarah Williams and the Mountain Hawks pulled within two at 13-11 as the clock wound down to 10:48 and Lehigh kept Lafayette scoreless for five minutes.
Lafayette's Jamie O'Hare drained a three-pointer to stop the Lehigh streak with 9:15 on the first-half clock and neither team scored another field goal until O'Hare sank a jumper with 5:32 to play to put the Leopards up 18-12. Lafayette pulled ahead by eight at 22-14 two minutes later before baskets from Kinek and Mann put the score at 24-18 as the clock wound down to 1:53. A Linnel Macklin three-pointer gave Lafayette its largest lead yet at 27-18, but a Williams layup and pair of Martins free throws narrowed the Leopard advantage to seven as Lafayette took a 29-22 lead into halftime.
Lafayette controlled a 33-26 lead three minutes into the second half before Lehigh erupted on a 14-0 run over the next five minutes to take a 40-33 advantage. Mann scored seven of the streak's 14 points while Martins added four to give Lehigh its first lead of the game.
An O'Hare three stopped the Lehigh streak at 12:05 and ignited an 8-2 Leopard run as Lafayette closed the gap to 42-41 with 8:28 left on the clock. A three-pointer from Mann put Lehigh back up by four, but the Leopards answered with back-to-back layups to knot the score at 45 with 7:08 left in the game.
The score was knotted at 47 with 3:59 on the clock before an O'Reilly free throw put the Mountain Hawks up by one. The Leopards used back-to-back baskets to pull ahead 51-48, but Kinek tossed in a jumper to put the score at 51-50 with just under two minutes to play. The Leopards scored the next four points to force a Lehigh timeout with 51 seconds to play and Lafayette in front 55-50.
A Martins free throw made it 55-51 with 35.7 seconds on the clock. Lafayette closed the game with a 2-for-4 showing from the charity stripe before a last-second layup gave the Leopards a 59-51 victory.
The Mountain Hawks remain on the road Wednesday to head to Bucknell at 7 p.m. Free video will be available on the Patriot League Network with audio coverage on 91.3 WLVR.
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Team Stats
LEHIGH
LAFAYETT
FG%
.317
.387
3FG%
.143
.400
FT%
.600
.636
RB
43
44
TO
15
19
STL
12
7
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
16
FGM
7
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
10
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
6
Pts
8
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Pts
6
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's BasketballG/F
/ Women's Basketball
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/ Women's Basketball
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