Lehigh Wins Back-and-Forth Battle at Cornell 62-57

Monday, November 20

Ithaca, N.Y.

7 p.m.

Lehigh University

2-2

Cornell

0-4

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Lehigh	24	8	11	19	62
Cornell	18	15	12	12	57

Photo by: Ricky Bassman

Lehigh Wins Back-and-Forth Battle at Cornell 62-57

11/20/2017 9:39:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y. – Senior Quinci Mann scored a game-high 19 points and four rebounds on 7-of-13 shooting and sophomore Gena Grundhoffer went 5-for-9 for 14 points to lift the Lehigh women's basketball team past Cornell 62-57 in a hard-fought, back-and-forth contest on Monday night. The game featured 11 lead changes and 37 combined turnovers as Lehigh shot 48.9 percent overall and 35 percent from three-point range, and held Cornell to 39.3 percent overall and just 4-for-16 from long range. The Big Red (0-4) outscored Lehigh (2-2) 33-28 in the paint and 24-18 off turnovers, while LU held an 11-7 edge in second chance points.

Sophomore Camryn Buhr netted nine points on 4-of-7 shooting and led the team with seven boards. Senior Mae Williams hit two three-pointers and finished with six points, three rebounds and two assists, and senior Bernadette Devaney had five points. Mann and Buhr led the team with three assists each.

"I thought we executed really well down the stretch," said head coach Sue Troyan. "It was a pretty close game and Quinci did a good job of knocking down free throws, we did a good job of executing and getting the ball to the right person in certain situations. I thought a lot of different kids stepped up in different ways today."

Each team pulled down 31 rebounds as Lehigh bookended the game with strong first and fourth quarters, but Cornell did hold a 17-9 edge on the offensive glass.

"I thought we did a good job defensively," Troyan said. "I didn't think we were great on the defensive end with rebounding, but I thought it was a game where they made some defensive plays and that was probably the difference in the game. I thought we gave up too many second chance opportunities and offensive boards. We probably could've controlled the game a lot better had we limited their chances there."

Lehigh started the game 4-for-6 from three-point range to take a 14-8 lead prior to the under-five media timeout. Williams started 2-for-2 from the outside, while Grundhoffer and Devaney each connected on their first three-point attempts.

Following the break, Hedstrom scooped in a bucket and Mann hit her first three of the contest to up the Lehigh edge to 19-10. Mann gave LU its largest lead of the half following a layup one minute later to make it 21-11. Clougherty added Lehigh's fourth three with 48 seconds left to go up 24-13, before Cornell ran off five straight points, including a buzzer-beating three-pointer, to make it 24-18 after one.

The Big Red kept the momentum going, eventually getting the run up to 15-4 to knot the game at 28-28 with 3:51 to go in the second quarter. Benz hit a pair from the free throw line with 3:17 remaining to retake the lead at 30-28 and Devaney sank a jumper with 2:28 to go to make it 32-28. Much like the first quarter, Cornell closed the period with five straight with points from Dylan Higgins and Samantha Clement, and a free throw from Samantha Widmann with 1:11 left to take a 32-32 lead into the locker room.

Cornell grabbed the final eight rebounds of the half, with Lehigh not earning one beyond the second quarter media timeout at 4:54. The Mountain Hawks shot 60 percent overall in the first quarter, but cooled off to 3-for-11 in the second, and went 0-for-5 from long range after starting the game 6-for-9.

Mann scored four points early in the third quarter, along with a Grundhoffer turnaround layup to help LU hold a 38-35 lead at the 7:13 mark. Cornell took advantage of sloppy Lehigh play and converted four straight to retake the lead 39-38 off a steal and breakaway layup just under five minutes in. The teams each traded jumpers before Grundhoffer knotted the game 43-43 with a three-pointer with 1:19 left before Danielle Jorgenson added a layup to give the Big Red the a two point lead entering the fourth.

Down 46-43 early in the fourth, Mann drove the lane and hit back-to-back layups with the left hand to put Lehigh back up 47-46, forcing a Cornell timeout with 7:36 on the clock.

After falling behind by one with 7:27 left, Lehigh upped the pressure on defense and retook the lead for good, taking advantage of eight Cornell turnovers in the frame to go on an 11-3 run to build up a 58-50 lead with 2:29 left following two free throws by Grundhoffer. Cornell got to within four points with 37 seconds left, but Mann hit four free throws in as many attempts in the closing seconds to ice the game away despite a three-pointer by Jorgenson as time expired.

"We played one of our best quarters coming out of the gate, and then we got pretty out of sync in the second," Troyan said. "But, again we responded. Cornell was hungry to get a win and competed well in their first three games, so we knew it was going to be a dogfight down the stretch. I'm proud of how the kids responded in the second half made that run in the fourth quarter."

Lehigh will next host its home opener at Stabler Arena on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. against Mansfield. A live audio broadcast of the game will be available at Lehighsports.com/watch.

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