Saturday, January 14
Worcester, Mass.
1 p.m.
Lehigh University
5-12, 0-6
47
at
65
Holy Cross
4-13, 2-4
1
2
3
4
F
Lehigh
15
10
10
12
47
Holy Cross
24
15
6
20
65
Lehigh Unable to Overcome Slow Start in 65-47 Loss at Holy Cross
1/14/2017 5:09:00 PM | Women's Basketball
WORCESTER, Mass. – The Lehigh women's basketball team was unable to overcome a slow start on Saturday afternoon on the road and fell 65-47 to Holy Cross. Sophomore Hailey Pascoe set new career-highs with 16 points and four three-pointers on 4-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc, while adding four rebounds. Junior Quinci Mann scored 15 points, 11 of which came in the second half, and freshman Cameryn Benz had five points and six rebounds off the bench. The loss is Lehigh's (5-12, 0-6 PL) ninth in a row, while Holy Cross (4-13, 2-4 PL) grabs its second consecutive win.
For the game, Holy Cross held advantages of 28-14 in the paint, 20-7 in points off turnovers and 15-7 in second chance points. The Crusaders, who average 34.3 percent from the field, shot 40.4 percent for the game, despite going just 1-for-12 in the third quarter, and the Mountain Hawks combined to shoot 30.8 percent. Each team committed 15 turnovers.
The Mountain Hawks dug themselves an early 9-0 hole, before Pascoe drained one of her three first half triples at 6:59 to put points on the board. The bucket failed to quell the Crusaders' run as HC upped the lead to 16-3 by the midway point of the quarter. Hannah Hedstrom grabbed a long offensive rebound and fed Benz underneath for a layup at 5:18 to make it 16-5. Pascoe hit another three at 3:49 off a Kayla Burton assist and Camryn Buhr hit a jumper to make it 18-10 with under two minutes remaining in the quarter. A layup by Pascoe and free throw from Gena Grundhoffer got Lehigh to within nine at 24-15 with 38 seconds left in the quarter.
"We definitely had a slow start at the beginning," said head coach Sue Troyan. "I thought the first quarter really hurt us, coming out of the gate slow on the offensive end. Holy Cross has struggled to score on the offensive end just like we have, and we gave them 25 first quarter points."
Lehigh would get no closer than nine points the rest of the game, shooting just 3-for-13 from the field to start the second quarter, which included a 1-for-10 stretch. Pascoe started the quarter with a three-pointer as the Crusaders put up six points before the media timeout at 4:27 to hold a 30-18 lead. Mann came out of the timeout hitting a jumper in the paint to get within 10 points at 30-20, but Holy Cross answered with a three-pointer from Infinity Thomas-Waheed. Grundhoffer and Hedstrom combined for a trio of free-throws to get within 10 once more before HC rattled off six of the half's last eight points, leaving the Mountain Hawks to go into the locker room down 39-25 for the second straight game.
"I certainly don't think we set the tone on either end of the floor with the intensity that we needed to come out with," Troyan said. "I think we picked it up in the second quarter and played better, but we just struggled throughout the game offensively."
Through the opening 20 minutes, Holy Cross held a 20-8 edge in the paint and led 11-4 in points off turnovers, in addition to shooting 51.6 percent to Lehigh's 32.1 percent.
"Individually they are playing hard and working hard, it's just we have to play at lot smarter now than we've been playing," Troyan said.
Mann converted a layup on Lehigh's first possession of the third quarter, before both teams went silent for over three minutes, which ended when freshman Lauren Manis (game-high 22 points) gave the Crusaders a bucket. Pascoe was next to score with a jumper at the 5:17 mark, and later added a three, which was followed by a free throw from Benz with 1:23 left to get it back to single digits at 42-33. Lehigh would get no closer though, as Mann ended the period with a jumper to cut it to 45-35 entering the fourth quarter. Lehigh outscored Holy Cross 10-6 the third quarter as both teams combined to shoot just 18.5 percent (5-for-27).
Down by 15 with just under eight minutes left, Bernadette Devaney sank one from long range and Mann followed with two free throws less than minute later to get Lehigh to within 52-42, but HC responded with seven unanswered points to build a 17-point edge, and later closed the game on a 6-0 run for the 65-47 final.
"We just have to work on getting better," Troyan said. "We have to stay positive and keep working on getting better with each game. There's a lot to get better at, and a big part of that is gaining our confidence back as well."
Lehigh will return home on Wednesday night for a 7 p.m. matchup against Navy. All of the action will be streamed live at PatriotLeague.TV and Lehighsports.com/watch.
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Team Stats
LEHIGH
HC
FG%
.308
.404
3FG%
.217
.368
FT%
.667
.632
RB
32
45
TO
15
15
STL
4
8
Game Leaders
Pts
16
FGM
6
3FGM
4
FTM
0
Pts
15
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
5
Pts
5
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
4
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballG
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