Wednesday, March 8
Lewisburg, Pa.
7:30 p.m.
Lehigh University
20-12
65
at
81
Bucknell
26-8
1
2
F
Lehigh
34
31
65
Bucknell
35
46
81
Early second half surge propels Bucknell past Lehigh 81-65 in Patriot League title game
3/8/2017 10:32:00 PM | Men's Basketball
LEWISBURG, Pa. – A 15-0 run spanning the end of the first half and the start of the second helped Bucknell break open a tight back-and-forth affair as the host Bison claimed the Patriot League Tournament title with a 81-65 win over Lehigh Wednesday night at a sold-out Sojka Pavilion.
Lehigh lead by six late in the first half, but an Avi Toomer three-pointer gave the Bison a one-point lead at the break. The Bison also scored the first 12 points in a second half that saw the hosts shoot 47.5 percent from the field.
Senior Tim Kempton led the way for the Mountain Hawks with 22 points and 17 rebounds. With those numbers Wednesday night, Kempton moved past former Bucknell star Mike Muscala for fourth place in the Patriot League's career scoring list (2,043) and into second place in the league's career rebounding list (1,095).
The Mountain Hawks shot 45 percent from the field but a 2-for-11 start to the second half allowed the Bison to build an 18-point lead.
Lehigh falls to 20-12 on the season with the loss, while Bucknell improves to 26-8 and wins its first Patriot League title since 2013.
"We had a lot of breakdowns in the first half, but we were battling, we were competing and we were scoring," Lehigh head coach Brett Reed said. "Bucknell came out on fire at the beginning of that second half. We did everything we could to try and control them. We had a layup opportunity. We had a point in the paint. We had free throw chances. We had another finish that we just didn't convert. That allowed Bucknell to build a little bit of a lead.
"We fought like mad to try and get back in," Reed continued. "We scratched and clawed and fought, but they just made play after play after play when our backs were against the wall. We needed to have everything go our way. Give them a lot of credit. They stepped up."
The first half saw Bucknell lead by as many as six nearly 11 minutes in. A Zach Thomas layup gave the Bison a 25-24 lead in a back-and-forth half, but Lehigh answered with a 6-0 run to take its largest lead, featuring a pair of layups from senior Austin Price and a pair of Kempton free throws with 4:09 left in the half.
A Kempton dunk gave Lehigh a 34-32 lead late in the half, but Toomer's wide-open three from the top of the key put Bucknell in front at the break.
The Bison scored the first 12 points of the second half, with a three-point play by Nana Foulland, a putback by Zach Thomas and a Foulland dunk forcing an early Lehigh timeout. Bucknell's lead reached 47-34 before a Price free throw stopped the run.
The Bison lead reached as high as 18 and while the Mountain Hawks desperately tried to claw back, could only get as close as nine at 61-52 on two Kempton free throws with 5:00 to play. A Kimbal MacKenzie three-point play re-established a double-digit lead and the Bison never looked back, outscoring Lehigh 20-13 over the final five minutes to hand the Mountain Hawks their second straight loss in a Patriot League championship game.
Kempton's 22 points came on 9-of-21 shooting. As a team, Lehigh shot 45 percent (27-of-60) but just 4-of-14 from three and an uncharacteristic 7-of-15 (46.7%) from the free throw line. Sophomore Kyle Leufroy was Lehigh's next highest scorer with 14 points and he added six rebounds. Price added 11 as he and Kempton were named to the All-Tournament Team, along with Bucknell's MacKenzie, Foulland and Thomas.
"I feel so bad for these kids," Reed said. "They wanted this so bad. They're crushed. I'm crushed. I give them so much credit for working to improve and to find a way to get to this point, because it didn't always look like we were going to get to this point. We fought to get there and Tim Kempton is a big reason why. He left it all out on the table. He just went after it tonight from rebounding to scoring. We're a thin team. We asked him to do a lot and he stepped up and tried to do it. Unfortunately, we came up short."
MacKenzie led Bucknell with 18 points including a trio of three-pointers, while Foulland and Thomas each added 17. The Bison shot 47 percent from the field for the game and made eight three pointers.
Bucknell won the rebounding battle 40-37 and committed just five turnovers to Lehigh's 10.
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Team Stats
LEHIGH
BUCKNELL
FG%
.450
.472
3FG%
.286
.333
FT%
.467
.714
RB
36
40
TO
10
5
STL
2
4
Game Leaders
Pts
22
FGM
9
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
11
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
C/F
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