Wednesday, December 6
Bethlehem, Pa.
7 p.m.

Lehigh University

vs

Yale

Jordan Cohen

Lehigh returns home to host Yale Wednesday night

12/4/2017 4:16:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Game Notes | Watch Live (PLN) | Listen Live | Live Stats | Purchase Tickets
 
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Following a four-game road trip which had plenty of bright moments, the Lehigh men's basketball team returns home on Wednesday to host Ivy League contender Yale. Opening tipoff in Stabler Arena is set for 7 p.m. The Mountain Hawks went 1-3 on their recent road trip against four challenging teams, which included an impressive victory at defending Ivy League Champion Princeton.
 
Admission is FREE with a Lehigh ID. Tickets for the general public are available online (click here to purchase) and at the box office on Wednesday. Fans can purchase a $1 ticket with a donation to New Bethany Ministries. Preferred donations include non-perishable food items, toys, towels, twin bedding and more. Lehigh students can take the Campus Connector bus to the game, with buses set to leave at 6:30 p.m. from Packer Ave. and 6:34 from Alpha Phi. Buses will continually run back from the Goodman Campus at 8:33, 8:53, 9:13, 9:33, etc. For the complete campus connector bus schedule, please click here. 
 
Wednesday's game will be aired live online through the Patriot League Network, will be televised on Stadium's 24/7 stations (click here to view the list of stations) and on Stadium's Twitter page.
 
Lehigh enters Wednesday's game with a 4-4 record with its four losses coming to Monmouth and three power conference opponents in No. 10 USC, Pitt and most recently, No. 15/18 Virginia. Lehigh was competitive in each game, including last time out at UVA when the Mountain Hawks dropped a 75-54 final. Lehigh hung tough in the early going as junior Lance Tejada knocked down three-pointers to even the score at six, then nine. Sophomore Ed Porter hit two free throws to pull Lehigh within 12-11, but the Cavaliers answered with 20 of the next 25 points, including a pair of 10-0 runs, to create separation. Lehigh trailed 37-19 at one point, but didn't let the game get away, only getting outscored by three over the game's final 23:26.
 
The Mountain Hawks' 54 points marked a season low, but they were more points than UVA was allowing to its opponents on average this season. Facing the nation's No. 1 scoring defense, Lehigh's 54 points were also the most scored by an opponent at UVA's John Paul Jones Arena this season. Lehigh shot 40.4 percent from the field (five percent better than Virginia was allowing) and 41.7 percent from three-point range (16.7 percent better). Tejada led Lehigh's offense with a game-high 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting and 5-of-9 from three-point range. It marked the first time since last Feb. 22 against Colgate that a Mountain Hawk hit five or more three-pointers. Last February, it was Kyle Leufroy. Tejada became the first player to score 20 points or more against Virginia all season. Before Tejada, the previous high scorer was Isaac Vann of VCU, who scored 19. It was the first time in 10 games (dating back to last season) that UVA allowed a 20-point scorer. The last was Bonzie Colson of Notre Dame, who scored 21 in the ACC Semifinals last March. Tejada's 22 points were most by any player against UVA since last February 15 when Duke's Jayson Tatum (currently of the Boston Celtics) scored 28. Over his last two games, Tejada has 40 points on 14-of-26 shooting to increase his season scoring average to a team-leading 16.4.
 
Senior Kahron Ross finished with nine points and three of the Mountain Hawks' seven assists. In the process, he moved from 30th to 28th on Lehigh's career scoring list, passing Bill Cheslock and Ray Green. Ross now owns 1,073 career points. He also has 572 career assists, needing six to tie and seven to break Mackey McKnight's Lehigh career record. Sophomore Pat Andree had eight points and eight rebounds while classmate Jordan Cohen tied a career high with seven rebounds, marking a new career high against Division I opponents.
 
The Mountain Hawks will return to Stabler Arena for the first time in 17 days to face Yale. The Bulldogs were predicted second in the preseason Ivy League poll, only behind Harvard and just ahead of Princeton. Last season, Yale fell to Princeton the first-ever Ivy League Tournament Championship Game.
 
Last month, Yale lost two significant players to injury in forward Jordan Bruner (for the season) and guard Makai Mason (for several weeks), but the Bulldogs have enjoyed success early in posting a 5-5 record. Recently, Yale won at Delaware (76-66) and vs. Bryant (84-67) before dropping a 92-66 final at No. 23 TCU on Saturday. Miye Oni leads the Bulldogs in scoring, averaging 15.9 points per game while Alex Copeland is averaging 11.6 and Blake Reynolds has scored 10.3 per contest. Three Yale players are averaging more than five rebounds, led by Oni at 5.8. The Bulldogs are averaging 78.8 points per game and are 41st nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.35).
 
Yale has won two straight meetings in the all-time series, this after the Mountain Hawks had won five in a row. Last season, the Bulldogs pulled out an 89-81 overtime victory while two years ago, Yale won at Stabler Arena, 79-67 in the first meeting between the teams since 2010, a 62-57 Mountain Hawks' victory on New Year's Eve. The two teams first met in 1903-04, a 20-14 Yale win. Yale won the first five meetings before Lehigh's first win on Jan. 9, 1993, 54-53.
 
Following Wednesday's game, the Mountain Hawks will return home on Saturday to host Mount St. Mary's at 2 p.m. Tickets are on sale and can be purchased online by clicking here.
 
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