Saturday, February 4
Stabler Arena
2 p.m.
Lehigh University
7-15, 2-9PL
58
vs
70
American
11-11, 8-3PL
1
2
3
4
F
American
14
16
22
18
70
Lehigh
17
14
10
17
58
Second Half Surge Sends American Past Lehigh 70-58
2/4/2017 5:44:00 PM | Women's Basketball
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – A 17-1 run by American in the middle of the second half helped the Eagles pull away from Lehigh for a 70-58 win on Saturday afternoon at Stabler Arena. Three Lehigh players scored in double figures as junior Quinci Mann led the way with 15 points, freshman Gena Grundhoffer had 14 points, six rebounds and two steals, while freshman Camryn Buhr had 12 points and seven rebounds on 5-of-10 shooting. Freshman Hannah Hedstrom dished out four assists and set a career-high for the second straight game with a team-leading nine rebounds. The American defense forced 18 Lehigh turnovers and held an 18-7 advantage in points off those miscues. Lehigh outrebounded the Eagles 31-28, marking the third straight game with a positive rebounding margin. With the loss, Lehigh drops to 7-15 (2-9 Patriot) and American improves to 11-11 (8-3 Patriot).
"I thought they tightened up their defense," said head coach Sue Troyan. "The first half I thought we had a lot of open perimeter looks and we were able to knock them down, and in the second half they did a pretty good job of contesting a lot of those looks."
A quick moving first quarter saw three ties and three lead changes as the two teams battled back and forth. Two straight threes from Mann helped Lehigh build an 8-4 lead four minutes, and a layup from Buhr one minute later helped give Lehigh a 10-6 edge. American ran off the next eight points before Buhr tied it at 14 in the final minute with back-to-back layups. Cameryn Benz then nailed a straightaway three-pointer just ahead of the horn to give the Mountain Hawks a 17-14 lead heading into the second.
Both teams shot 7-of-13 (53.8 percent) in the opening quarter with the Mountain Hawks shooting 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.
Grundhoffer started the second quarter with a layup that gave Lehigh its largest lead of the game at 19-14. American responded with eight unanswered points, including six from Kinneston to take a 22-19 lead, before a Grundhoffer free throw and five straight points from Mann put Lehigh back on top 25-22. American tied the game at 25, only to see Lehigh go up again on a three from senior Kayla Burton with 2:52 left. Hailey Pascoe answered on the next possession with a three to put Lehigh back up by four before Kinneston put in a three of her own to cut the Lehigh edge to 31-20 going into the locker room.
At the half, both teams were fairly even in shooting with the Eagles at 48.3 percent (14-for-29) and Lehigh at an even 48 percent (12-for-25). Lehigh shot well from the outside with a 54.5 percent (6-for-11) clip from three-point range.
"When we play well on both ends of the floor, we can be really good, and I think you see that within almost every game that we've played," Troyan said. "It's just our inconsistency and it tends to usually be a quarter and half a quarter, and when you do that a good team is going to take advantage of those mistakes. I think they have a lot of confidence that they can compete with anyone in the league. I thought that showed in the first half, but probably didn't carry over into the third quarter."
Lehigh's shooting cooled considerably in the third quarter with the Mountain Hawks shooting just 3-for-13 overall and 0-for-3 from three point range. American tied the game 38-38 at the 6:14 mark with a three-pointer from Kaitlyn Lewis. Hedstrom was fouled while collecting an offensive rebound and hit both free throws to put Lehigh up 40-38 with 4:11 to go in the frame. From there, American exploded for a 17-1 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters, as Lehigh missed their final seven shots of the third quarter and trailed by 11 entering the fourth.
"I didn't think we were really patient on the offensive end in the third quarter," Troyan said. "Our shot selection wasn't very strong and we weren't patient in running the offense to get the best shot. American is one of the better defending teams in the league and you really have to work and execute your stuff to get good shots."
Bernadette Devaney ended the American run with one of her two threes on the day to make it a 55-44 ballgame with 8:04 remaining. American would get the lead back to a game-high 14 on three more occasions and Lehigh was only able to get within single digits on two occasions courtesy of a pair of buckets from Grundhoffer at 7:16 and 6:43. Nine of Grundhoffer's 14 points came in the final 10 minutes, as American outscored Lehigh 18-17 in the final frame.
"Our rebounding has been a point of emphasis," Troyan said of her team's success in rebounding the last few games. "We talk a lot about team rebounding because we are not a team that's going to outsize a lot of our opponents, so we have to rely on rebounding as a group by not just relying on our post players, but on our guards as well."
Next up, Lehigh will make the drive west on Wednesday evening for an in-state showdown at Bucknell at 6 p.m. Live coverage will be available at PatriotLeague.TV and Lehighsports.com/watch.
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Team Stats
AU
LEHIGH
FG%
.481
.423
3FG%
.278
.400
FT%
.867
.750
RB
28
31
TO
10
18
STL
8
6
Game Leaders
Pts
15
FGM
6
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
14
FGM
6
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
12
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
6
FGM
2
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
G
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