Saturday, February 17
West Point, N.Y.
1 p.m.

Lehigh University

13-13, 7-8PL

50
at
55

Army West Point

14-12, 7-8PL

1
2
3
4
F
LEHIGH
9
14
15
12
50
ARMY
11
14
18
12
55
Bernadette Devaney

Late Lehigh Surge Comes up Short in Loss at Army West Point

2/17/2018 4:46:00 PM | Women's Basketball

WEST POINT, N.Y. - A late 8-0 run was not enough on Saturday afternoon for the Lehigh women's basketball team, which fell 55-50 on the road at Army West Point. Two seniors led the way for Lehigh with Quinci Mann scoring 15 of her game-high 17 points in the second half, and Bernadette Devaney scoring 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting and 2-for-2 from three-point range. Sophomore Camryn Buhr also reached double figures with 10 points, a team-high six rebounds and three blocks. Lehigh (43.8 percent/21-for-48) outshot Army (41.5 percent/22-for-53), but the Black Knights won the rebounding battle 36-25, including 16-8 on the offensive end. Army turned the ball over 15 times to LU's 12, and Lehigh held advantages of 13-12 in points off turnovers and 32-26 in the paint.

"There are good things that we need to build off of," said head coach Sue Troyan. "There's still a lot to play out here over the last three games of the season. You have to take the good things and can't hang your head. I thought their defensive effort was tremendous and played a great game. But, we just struggled at the beginning of the fourth quarter to get anything going offensively and were fortunate to make a run there in the last four minutes."

Mann had a jumper early as Army missed their first five shots before scoring seven straight points off a three, layup and a breakaway layup off a steal to go up 7-2 by the 4:27 media timeout. Devaney broke a 9-2 run with a three-pointer at 2:04 then added a layup in the final minute, as Army held an 11-9 lead after one.

After Buhr tied it in the opening moments of the second quarter, Army ran off six straight to take a 17-11 lead. The teams traded baskets over the next several minutes before Jess Lewis hit a three to give Army its largest lead of the half at 23-16 with 1:40 to go. Buhr followed with a basket, then Devaney, who returned to the floor after suffering an injury earlier in the quarter, notched a steal near midcourt and took it all the way to the rim for two with 1:01 left, then followed by draining a long three with 25 seconds left to cut it to 25-23 going into the locker room. Lehigh committed just one turnover in the second after turning it over six times in the first.

"Bernie gave us good minutes and made some big shots," Troyan said. "She was really aggressive with the basketball. In the second half, I thought Quinci did a good job of just making plays. Their defense did not give us a lot, so it was about making plays and I thought Quinci did a good job of breaking them down a bit."

Lehigh came out of the locker room and built a four-point, 33-29 lead over the first three-plus minutes of the third following a layup from Hannah Hedstrom and baseline jumper from Mae Williams. After Mann made it 35-31 at the 4:55 mark, Army closed the quarter on a 12-3 run as Lehigh missed its last three shots and committed three turnovers.

Trailing 43-39 entering the fourth, Lehigh went down by nine as Army extended the run to 18-5, outscoring Lehigh 6-2 over the first six minutes of the period. Mann put in a jumper to be within five at the 8:05 mark before the Cadets went up 49-40 with 3:53 left. From there, the Mountain Hawks battled back to get within one thanks to an 8-0 run. Hedstrom began the run with a free throw at 3:46. Lehigh then forced three turnovers on consecutive possessions, the first of which led to an offensive rebound by Cameryn Benz, which set up Mann for a basket and free throw, making it 49-44. Buhr followed with a layup at 2:07 and Mann sank a jumper in the paint on the next possession to cut it to 49-48 with just 1:33 left. Army's Janae McNeal and Mann each matched layups before Army pulled down a critical offensive rebound off a missed jumper with 24 seconds left. After two free throws with 16 seconds left made it 53-50, Lehigh turned to Mann to tie the game as time ticked down, but her attempt from the corner ironed out with one second left.

"They had their way with us on the offensive rebounds," Troyan said. "That's the one area on the defensive end that really cost us, giving them 16 offensive boards. I thought they showed a lot of toughness and a lot of fight that we haven't seen recently. If there is a small takeaway from the game, it's I thought they competed and played hard."

Lehigh will return home this Wednesday to host Loyola at 6 p.m. at Stabler Arena.

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