Lehigh Rallies from 20 Down; But Falls Short at Colgate

Wednesday, February 22

Hamilton, N.Y.

7 p.m.

Lehigh University

9-18 (4-12PL)

Colgate

10-17 (7-9PL)

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Lehigh	12	19	24	15	70
Colgate	23	19	15	18	75

Lehigh Rallies from 20 Down; But Falls Short at Colgate

2/22/2017 9:57:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

HAMILTON, N.Y. – The Lehigh women's basketball team overcame an early 20-point deficit to take the lead over Colgate in the second half, but was unable to complete the comeback as the Raiders held on for the 75-70 win on Wednesday at Cotterell Court. Junior Quinci Mann led the Mountain Hawks with 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting and 5-of-9 from three-point range. Sophomore Hailey Pascoe scored 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting and 4-of-6 from three-point range, and junior Mae Williams scored a career-high 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting and tied for a team-leading six rebounds. Freshmen Gena Grundhoffer and Camryn Buhr had nine points apiece and combined for 11 rebounds, and freshman Cameryn Benz scored five points. Colgate's Kateri Stone scored 20 of her game-high 29 points in the first half, and finished the game 8-of-12 overall and 6-for-7 from beyond the arc.

Colgate outrebounded Lehigh 39-32 and outscored LU 32-26 in the paint. Lehigh held advantages of 21-18 on points off turnovers and 13-8 on second chance points. Lehigh also committed 13 turnovers to Colgate's 18, however Lehigh committed nine of those miscues in the second half and six in the fourth quarter. Colgate shot 51.9 percent for the game and 6-of-9 from three-point land, while the Mountain Hawks went 39.1 percent from the field and tied a season high with 12 three-pointers (40 percent). The loss sends Lehigh to 9-18 (4-12 PL), while Colgate improves to 10-17 (7-9 PL).

Lehigh got off to a cold 0-for-10 start to the game, while Colgate stormed out to a 22-2 over the first seven minutes. Trailing 13-0, Benz ended the Lehigh drought with a jumper to get LU on the board at the 5:47 mark. Colgate answered with another 9-0 run, highlighted by a pair of threes from Stone before Lehigh snapped awake and ripped off a 10-0 run, featuring threes from Mann and Pascoe, a layup from Buhr and two more Mann free throws to make it 22-12. Colgate added one free throw in the final seconds of the quarter to end the scoring drought and make it a 23-12 game after one.

Lehigh was just 4-for-23 (17.4 percent) from the field in the opening 10 minutes, while Colgate shot 9-for-16 (56.3 percent) and was a perfect 3-for-3 from downtown.

"It's frustrating," said head coach Sue Troyan. "We came out of the gates really slow, and once we buckled down and started playing defense I thought we played pretty well on both ends of the floor. You take those first five to seven minutes out of the game it would probably be a different outcome."

Lehigh increased the run to 15-1 coming out in the second quarter following a three-pointer from Mann and a Buhr layup. After four straight points from Colgate, Benz hit a three with 6:36 remaining to make it a 29-20 ballgame. After a Raider basket by Rachel Thompson, Williams drained a bucket and Buhr drilled one from the outside to cut the deficit to just five, 30-25 with just over five minutes remaining until halftime. Back-to-back jumpers by Katie Curtis got the Raiders' lead back to nine before Buhr made it 34-27, but Stone once again had the answer with two straight threes to make it a 40-27 lead with just under two minutes left in the half. Grundhoffer and Mann sandwiched a pair of Raider free throws to cut the halftime deficit to 11, 42-31.

The Raiders shot a sizzling 61.5 percent in the opening 20 minutes in over 83 percent from three-point range, while Lehigh went 12-for-41 (29.3 percent) in the first half.

Pascoe got the deficit down to seven at the 5:21 mark of the third with a three, and Mann followed moments later with one of her own to make it a four-point, 50-46 ballgame. Williams put in a layup coming out of the under-five media timeout and Grundhoffer followed with a layup to knot the game at 50 with 3:19 remaining in the quarter. On the next possession, Pascoe drained a long three to extend the Lehigh run to 13-0 and give the Mountain Hawks their first lead of the game at 53-50, and increasing the Lehigh run to 20-4. Colgate rattled off the next five points of a layup and three free throws before Pascoe knotted the game once again with a jumper in the lane. Thompson gave Colgate the lead back with a layup and the Colgate defense held Lehigh to a forced shot as time expired, keeping it a 57-55 'Gate lead heading into the fourth.

Pascoe hit another triple right off the inbounds to start the fourth and give Lehigh the 58-57 lead. Colgate responded with four unanswered points before Mann tied it with another three. That would be as close as Lehigh would get for the remainder of the game, as the Raiders ran off the next nine points, which included four points from Summer King and a three from Stone, before Mann cut it to 70-64 with 2:52 left. Two free throws from Williams then cut it to 71-66 with 2:05 remaining. Lehigh was forced to begin fouling and would get within five again after a Grundhoffer layup with 11 seconds left, but would get no closer and fall 75-70.

"We didn't execute during that stretch where we took the lead and then had were a lot of empty possessions, and Colgate was able to extend their lead," Troyan said. "The frustrating part of this team is you know that it is there. You take confidence in knowing you can compete, but you also have the frustrations of trying to be competitive for 40 minutes."

The Brown and White will head out on the road for the final time during the regular season this Saturday afternoon when they take on Army West Point. Live coverage will be available on the Patriot League Network and ESPN Radio of the Lehigh Valley.

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