Monday, January 11
Stabler Arena
7:30 pm
Lehigh University
4-12, 2-3PL
76
vs
82
Bucknell
8-8, 5-0PL
1
2
F
Bucknell
43
39
82
Lehigh
29
47
76
Career games not enough in 82-76 loss vs. Bucknell
1/11/2016 10:51:00 PM | Men's Basketball
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Junior Tim Kempton and freshman Kyle Leufroy each tallied career highs in points with 29 and 23, respectively, but it wasn't enough as the Lehigh men's basketball team dropped an 82-76 final to Bucknell on Monday evening. The Mountain Hawks trimmed a 16-point halftime deficit down to one with 12:06 still remaining, but couldn't pull even. Monday's game was nationally-televised on CBS Sports Network.
Kempton finished the evening with 29 points on 10-of-14 shooting and 9-of-11 from the free throw line. He added six rebounds and a career-high tying four assists. Leufroy finished 8-of-15 from the field and 3-of-5 from three-point range while adding four rebounds and a career-high four steals. The Bison scored 20 of the final 26 first-half points to turn a 23-23 tie into a 43-29 halftime advantage.
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"Bucknell played a good game and for about 34 minutes, I think we played a good game," said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. "That's what you want to see when you come here to Stabler Arena. The problem is, there's 40 minutes on the clock so in that six-minute stretch, we really beat ourselves. A lot of it was the decisions we made, whether it's turnovers or shot selection. We emphasized moving the ball and when we did that, we had easy opportunities. In the first half, we had a lot of people going on individual pages and that really slowed us down and gave Bucknell, who's a good team, a chance to take advantage."
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Senior Jesse Chuku added eight points and six rebounds in the defeat while sophomore Kahron Ross had six points, five rebounds and four assists. Senior Justin Goldsborough provided five points and four rebounds off the bench.
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Lehigh jumped out to a quick 6-3 lead following a Ross fallaway jumper and Kempton layup with 17:14 left in the first half.
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Bucknell answered with five straight points, Leufroy responded with a three, but D.J. MacLeay answered with a trey just 13 seconds later. After a Nana Foulland three-point play gave the Bison a 14-11 lead, neither team scored for the next 2:53 until a Kempton layup with 12:00 on the first-half clock.
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Lehigh's lead reached three at 19-16 after a Leufroy trey with 9:08 remaining. A Kempton layup followed by two free throws evened the score at 23 with 6:28 on the clock, but Bucknell responded with an 11-2 run as a Chris Hass three-pointer gave the Bison a 34-25 advantage with 3:21 remaining in the first.
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Kempton ended the run with a layup, but Bucknell ended the half on a 9-2 run to take a 43-29 lead after 20 minutes of play.
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Kempton and Leufroy led the way in the first half with 14 points while Leufroy added 10. The two combined to shoot 9-of-15 in the first half.
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Bucknell scored the first points of the second half to take a 16-point lead, but the Mountain Hawks answered in a big way. Lehigh staged an 18-4 run, which began with a Leufroy jumper followed by a Chuku three-pointer just over one minute later. A Kempton three-point play pulled the Mountain Hawks within 47-41 with 15:05 on the clock and a few minutes later, Chuku knocked down a tough three-pointer with the shot clock winding down to pull Lehigh within one at 51-50 with 12:06 remaining.
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The Bison had an answer, using a 7-0 run to turn a 56-54 lead into a 63-54 advantage with exactly nine minutes on the clock.
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Trailing by eight, Lehigh scored four straight points behind a pair of Leufroy free throws and a short Kempton jumper that pulled the Mountain Hawks within 64-60 with 6:27 on the clock.
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Down by just four (67-63) with 4:24 remaining, Bucknell used an 8-0 run to erase much doubt. Included were a pair of tough three-pointers that turned a six-point margin into 12 as a Stephen Brown trey made the score 75-63 with 2:31 left in the second half.
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"Those were huge daggers," said Reed. "We were fighting in a position and they make tough, tough shots. When you get yourself in a hole, you need to play near perfect basketball. Credit to Bucknell, they have multiple people who can hit shots."
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The Mountain Hawks wouldn't quit, pulling within eight on multiple occasions and eventually six as a Leufroy trey with nine seconds on the clock gave him a career-high 23 points and made the final score 82-76.
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For the game, the Mountain Hawks shot 46 percent from the field (25-of-55) and 29 percent from three-point range (5-of-17). Bucknell shot 51 percent (28-of-55) and 50 percent from long distance (11-of-22). Lehigh held a 32-29 edge in rebounding.
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Lehigh will now hit the road this weekend, traveling to Worcester, Massachusetts for a Saturday matchup against Holy Cross. Opening tipoff is set for 1 p.m.
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Team Stats
BUCKNELL
LEHIGH
FG%
.509
.455
3FG%
.500
.294
FT%
.833
.808
RB
29
32
TO
14
13
STL
7
7
Game Leaders
Pts
29
FGM
10
3FGM
0
FTM
9
Pts
23
FGM
8
3FGM
3
FTM
4
Pts
8
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
6
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
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