Saturday, February 27
West Point, N.Y.
12:00 pm
Lehigh University
15-14, 13-5PL
82
at
72
Army West Point
18-12, 9-9PL
1
2
F
Lehigh
39
43
82
Army West Point
35
37
72
Price and Kempton Reach Milestones in Lehigh Win at Army West Point
2/27/2016 3:24:00 PM | Men's Basketball
WEST POINT, N.Y. - Junior Austin Price hit a pair of free throws with 16 seconds remaining in regulation to surpass the 1,000 point mark for his career, helping Lehigh top Army 82-72 on Saturday afternoon at Christl Arena. Price scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half, to go along with five steals, tying a career-high. Junior Tim Kempton tallied a team-best 23 points and pulled down a career-high 18 rebounds, 14 of which came in the second half to help the Mountain Hawks (15-14, 13-5 Patriot) to their ninth win in a row to close out the regular season. Sophomore Kahron Ross added 19 points and seven assists to go along with three rebounds, while freshman Kyle Leufroy added 11 points and five rebounds. The win also capped a 9-0 month of February for Lehigh, marking the team's first undefeated month since going 1-0 back in November of 1993. Based on other results from around the league, Lehigh will enter the upcoming Patriot League Tournament as the No. 2 seed.
With the score tied at eight coming out of the first media timeout, Army took a 10-8 advantage before Lehigh ripped off 10 straight points, featuring four points from Kempton and threes from both Ross and Jesse Chuku, forcing an Army timeout at the 12:43 mark.
The Mountain Hawks got the lead back to double digits just over two minutes later with a slam on a breakaway by Leufroy following a Justin Goldsborough steal, bringing the lead to 26-15. Army used a 10-4 run to cut the Lehigh lead to just four at 30-25 following the under eight timeout.
Kevin Ferguson cut the Lehigh lead to just three points with 54 seconds remaining in the half, but Leufroy answered at the other end with his first triple of the game with 33 seconds on the clock. A Tanner Plomb dunk for Army brought the score to 39-35 Lehigh at the break.
"Tim and Kahron for stetches were just absoluetly pheonominal," said head coach Breet Reed. "We gave up eight offensive rebounds in the fist half; in the second, we gave up one. Tim just did a number on the glass. That was an area we struggled with at the beginning of the year. Now, we've got that solidified, especially with Tim. Jesse has done a better job and even Justin in his minutes has done well and our wings are blocking out and doing what they need to do. That makes a difference in wins."
Price came out of the locker room on fire, running off nine points in a row for the Brown and White, highlighted by a dunk with 14:15 on the clock to up the Lehigh lead to 54-42. Ross gave Lehigh its largest lead of the day at 61-44, draining a three pointer to beat the shot clock with 12:43 to go. Following a Dylan Cox layup, Devon Carter added a layup for two of his four points to bring the lead back to 17.
The Black Knights then went on an 8-0 run over the next two and a half minutes, forcing a Lehigh timeout at the 10:16 mark, with the score 63-55. Kempton used a layup to get the lead back to double digits followed by a three pointer from Chuku, to make it 68-55.
Each team had one bucket apiece over the next four minutes, where Lehigh led 72-59 at the under four media timeout. After a slew of fouls and a series of missed free throws, Army cut the deficit to eight points on a Kyle Wilson three with 38 seconds left. Ross added a pair of free throws to get the lead back to 10, before Leufroy's second three of the game followed by Price's two free throws capped the Lehigh scoring. Luke Morrison's three pointer for Army in the waning seconds brought the final score to 82-72.
"Think about where we were and to be in the position we are now, it says a lot about these kids and not losing their faith and direction," said Reed.
Lehigh will enter the upcoming Patriot League Tournament as the number two seed. Following a first-round bye, the Mountain Hawks will host the winner of Tuesday's first-round matchup between No. 10 Lafayette and No. 7 Navy in the quarterfinals next Thursday (Mar. 3) at 7 p.m. Opening tipoff is set for 7 p.m. Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased, here.
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Team Stats
LEHIGH
ARMY
FG%
.508
.476
3FG%
.467
.263
FT%
.600
.538
RB
38
36
TO
8
13
STL
9
1
Game Leaders
Pts
23
FGM
11
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
19
FGM
7
3FGM
2
FTM
3
Pts
16
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
4
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
2
FTM
1
Players Mentioned
G
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