Sunday, February 19
Easton, Pa.
12 PM
Lehigh University
16-11; 10-6
81
at
55
Lafayette
8-19; 2-12
1
2
F
Lehigh
40
41
81
Lafayette
24
31
55
Mountain Hawks cruise past Lafayette, 81-55
2/19/2017 4:14:00 PM | Men's Basketball
EASTON, Pa. – The Lehigh men's basketball team jumped out to a 14-2 lead and wouldn't look back, eventually taking a 32-point second-half lead on its way to an 81-55 win over Lafayette on Sunday afternoon. The win marked Lehigh's largest over its rivals since Jan. 21, 1995. An all-around effort saw all 11 Mountain Hawks who saw action score, led by senior Tim Kempton's 49th-career double-double.
Lehigh's defense continued to impress, allowing just 55 points for the second straight game. The Mountain Hawks have allowed just 59.8 points per game in February.
"The defense has shown itself in some different ways," said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. "Last game (vs. Navy), we talked about defensive discipline. It was making sure we didn't give up easy opportunities. Today, we wanted to have more defensive energy. Lafayette is a good team, particularly when they're in a rhythm. We wanted to be as disruptive as we could and we established ourselves early with deflections and turnovers, by really getting out and pressuring the basketball. When we did that, we saw the immediate return, which promoted more confidence by the entire team. It's very helpful when you can have your bench come in and play pretty well where the energy doesn't dissipate, but it's maintained."
Kempton finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds in just 23 minutes, shooting 7-of-11 from the field and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line. As a team, Lehigh was 19-of-19 from the charity stripe, just the 16th time in the nation that a team has been perfect from the line this season. The 19 makes are third most by any team without a miss.
Senior Austin Price added 12 points, sophomore Kyle Leufroy had 11 points and seven rebounds while junior Kahron Ross had 10 points, a career-high tying eight rebounds, four assists and three steals, compared to just one turnover.
"You're not only going to talk about some of Kahron's defensive rebounds, but you're also going to talk about the defensive energy, creating for other people and managing multiple defensive changes by Lafayette and being able to organize us well enough so we could get into our offense," said Reed. "When you can start touching the game in a variety of different ways besides scoring and assists, and now you're rebounding, playing with defensive energy and getting our team organized, that's a good overall day for a point guard."
Lafayette opened the scoring, but the Mountain Hawks responded with the next 14 points, which included consecutive treys from Leufroy and Price. A pair of Leufroy free throws gave Lehigh a 14-2 lead with 15:43 on the first-half clock.
A few minutes later, a Leufroy layup gave Lehigh a 13-point, 18-5 advantage, but the Leopards responded with consecutive three-pointers to pull within 18-11 with 11:33 remaining in the first half.
Lehigh immediately answered by opening its largest lead. A Price trey, his second of the half, gave the Mountain Hawks a 29-13 lead with 8:48 on the clock. Lafayette again pulled within single digits, but two Matt Holba free throws helped Lehigh regain a 16-point lead, a margin which stood at the half as the Mountain Hawks took a 40-24 lead into the locker room.
The Mountain Hawks began the second half on a 5-0 run behind a Price three and Leufroy steal and layup, giving Lehigh a 47-24 lead which forced a Lafayette timeout. Lehigh's lead remained at least 20 for most of the ensuing minutes, leading into a Kempton three-point play which gave the Mountain Hawks a 58-32 advantage with 12:23 on the clock.
Not long after, a Pat Andree trey made Lehigh's lead 29 while a Jordan Cohen three gave the Mountain Hawks a 69-38 advantage with 7:52 on the clock.
Lehigh's lead reached as much as 32, 72-40, following a Holba trey, Lafayette used an 8-0 run to pull within 72-48, but the Mountain Hawks scored six points over the final 1:02, four from junior Jay Jay Davis and two from freshman Josh Wolf, to help Lehigh to the 81-55 win.
For the game, the Mountain Hawks shot 43.1 percent from the field (25-of-58), including 41.4 percent from three-point range (12-of-29). Lafayette shot just 30.6 percent (19-of-62) and 16.7 percent from long range (5-of-30), both season bests for Lehigh's defense. The Mountain Hawks finished with 11 steals, most since they had 11 last Feb. 10 at Bucknell.
Lehigh now returns home to wrap up the regular season. The Mountain Hawks host Colgate on Wednesday (7 p.m.) and Army West Point on Saturday (7:30 p.m.). Tickets for both games are available and can be purchased online by clicking here. With one win, Lehigh would clinch a home game in the Patriot League Quarterfinals; the Mountain Hawks currently stand in a tie for third place and could still finish as high as second in the league standings.
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Team Stats
LEHIGH
LAFAYETT
FG%
.431
.306
3FG%
.414
.167
FT%
1.000
.800
RB
41
36
TO
15
18
STL
11
2
Game Leaders
Pts
22
FGM
7
3FGM
1
FTM
7
Pts
12
FGM
4
3FGM
4
FTM
0
Pts
11
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
4
Pts
10
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballC/F
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
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