Sunday, December 11
Berkeley, Calif.
5 p.m. EST
Lehigh University
5-6
63
at
96
California
9-0
1
2
3
4
F
Lehigh
6
19
26
12
63
California
28
22
27
19
96
Mann Shines as Lehigh Falls at RV/No. 24 Cal
12/11/2016 8:03:00 PM | Women's Basketball
BERKELEY, Calif. – Junior Quinci Mann tied her season-high with 23 points on Sunday afternoon, but it was not enough for the Lehigh women's basketball team in a 96-63 loss to RV/No. 24 California. Mann shined in her Bay Area homecoming, falling just one point shy of tying her career-high while shooting 7-for-18 from the field and 4-of-12 from three-point range. Junior Bernadette Devaney scored a season-best 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, freshman Gena Grundhoffer tallied 10 points and three rebounds, freshman Camryn Buhr had seven points and five rebounds, while Hailey Pascoe, who also made her Northern California homecoming, had six points and three rebounds. Freshman Cameryn Benz also chipped in a team-high seven rebounds. The Golden Bears had four players score in double figures, led by Kristine Anigwe with 26 points and 10 rebounds. With the win, Cal improves to a school record 9-0, while Lehigh drops to 5-6.
Lehigh was unable to overcome a fast start from the Bears, who built a 26-6 lead after one quarter. Lehigh settled in after that and was outscored 68-57 over the final three quarters, and just 49-45 in the second and third quarters.
"I thought if you take the first quarter out of the mix, we really competed hard for three quarters and played pretty well," said head coach Sue Troyan. "I thought in the first quarter we were back on our heels. Their physicality and size I think intimidated us a little bit, but once we settled in we did a good job with shot selection, finishing shots and I think it's a game that will help us come Patriot League play."
Cal jumped out to an 18-1 lead over the first 4:31 of the game, a run that ended with a layup by Devaney at the 3:54 mark and a three-pointer by Mann to make it 18-6. From there Cal ran off the next 15 points, spilling over into the second quarter. Cal held Lehigh to just 12.5 percent shooting (2-for-16) in the opening quarter, including 1-for-9 from beyond the arc.
Buhr put in a layup at the 8:44 mark and Pascoe got Lehigh into double digits at 7:02 of the second quarter with a three-pointer. Mann grabbed a steal with 5:27 to go in the half and took it to the rim herself for two points to make it 39-15. Two threes by Mann and two points from Hannah Hedstrom cut the deficit to 50-25 going into the half.
Mann led Lehigh with 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting in the opening 20 minutes, including a trio of three-pointers. Hedstrom added four and Pascoe netted three of her own. The Mountain Hawks shot 31.6 percent in the second quarter to up their first half percentage to 22.9. Cal totaled 16 assists on their 50 points to go with three blocks and two steals.
"The one thing I didn't think we did a great job of was forcing them from the perimeter a little bit more," Troyan said. "That's probably the one weakness to their game. With our lack of size, they just did a really good job of being physical and going inside."
In the third quarter, Lehigh made it a 24-point game at 62-38 with a putback from Meagan Eripret and a jumper from Grundhoffer. Mann made it 64-40 with 3:03 to with two free throws before Devaney caught fire, drilling three three-pointers in as many attempts over the final 2:14 of the quarter to help get within 22 points with under a minute to go. Cal answered by completing a four-point play in the final seconds to make it 77-51 going into the final quarter.
Lehigh climbed as close as 23 following a wide open fastbreak layup by Grundhoffer, taking a pass from Buhr following a steal. Mann notched her final points of the game with 5:45 to go with a fastbreak layup of her own. Pascoe closed out the Lehigh scoring with 2:20 to go to get the deficit back under 30, before Cal collected the game's final four points.
"I thought Quinci played great and I thought Hailey had a nice game too," Troyan said. "It's a special opportunity for the both of them to come out here and play in front of family and friends. Both the Mann's and Pascoe's were great hosts over the weekend and we're really fortunate that our administration allows us to do something like this where our kids have the opportunity once in their four years to play in front of their home crowd. And neither of them disappointed, I thought they both played well."
After a break for final exams and the holidays, the Mountain Hawks will open up Patriot League play on Friday, Dec. 30 at Stabler Arena against Army West Point.
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Team Stats
LEHIGH
CAL
FG%
.296
.600
3FG%
.290
.429
FT%
.800
.706
RB
35
44
TO
14
14
STL
5
5
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
23
FGM
7
3FGM
4
FTM
5
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
10
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Pts
7
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
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