Lehigh forces 28 turnovers to come away with 59-53 victory over GW on Education Day

Wednesday, November 13

Bethlehem, Pa.

11 a.m.

Lehigh University

3-0,0-0Patriot

George Washington

1-2,0-0Atlantic 10

Team	1	2	3	4	F
George Washington	15	9	10	19	53
Lehigh	14	13	18	14	59

Photo by: Brent Hugo

Lehigh forces 28 turnovers to come away with 59-53 victory over GW on Education Day

11/13/2019 4:47:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — If defense does indeed win championships, then the Lehigh women's basketball team must be on the right track. The Mountain Hawks finished with 12 steals, forcing 28 Colonial turnovers throughout the course of the contest, as Lehigh defeated George Washington, 59-53 Wednesday morning during Education Day at Stabler Arena. The game also served as the team's home opener.

Lehigh trailed 15-14 after the first quarter of play, with sophomore guard Megan Walker leading the way with four early points. 10 of Lehigh's 14 points were in the paint, but the Colonials shot 42.9 percent from the field. The Mountain Hawks were held to just 37.5 percent (6-of-16) from the field and 1-for-4 from the 3-point line.

The Mountain Hawks managed just four points in the first four minutes of the second quarter, knotted up with the Colonials at 19 heading into the media timeout.

Lehigh got back-to-back 3-balls from Emma Grothaus and Mary Clougherty to take a 25-21 lead with 3:44 to play in the half.

With their lead at 25-24 following a GW 3-pointer, Clougherty converted on a jumper outside the paint to take a 27-24 heading into the break.

The Mountain Hawks got a six-point lead with 6:50 remaining in the third quarter after a Walker 3-pointer. With 5:58 to play in the third quarter, Cameryn Benz made a layup to take an eight-point, 36-28 advantage.

Grothaus' fastbreak layup with 49 seconds to play gave Lehigh its largest lead of the game to that point at 11 points, up 45-34.

Clougherty opened up the final stanza with her third 3-pointer of the contest to put Lehigh up 14, 48-34. Grothaus scored four total points after that with two made free throws and a layup to put the Mountain Hawks up 16, 52-36.

With a 56-44 lead with 4:36 remaining, the Colonials gradually continued to make their climb back into the game with a last-ditched effort. GW scored six straight to cut the deficit back to just six points, and went on an 8-3 to close out the contest, but Lehigh held on for the six point win.

Clougherty and Grothaus led Lehigh scorers with 14 points each off the bench. The total for Grothaus is a season-high and Clougherty registered double-digits in points for the second consecutive game. Lehigh toted out a second unit that included Clair Steele, Mariah Sexe, Katie Rice, Meagan Eripret and Frannie Hottinger in addition to both Clougherty and Grothaus. The bench led GW's bench in scoring 31-11, while Lehigh scored 25 of its 59 points off the Colonials' 28 total turnovers.

"Our bench is a strength of this team," said head coach Sue Troyan. "We don't have to rely on one or two players, we have different people come off the bench that bring different kinds of dynamic looks for us. We've got a lot of depth and we used that today with just applying changes and our half-court defense against them took them away from what they do best.

"Our kids have really bought in on the defensive end and we take a lot of pride in it and we know that if we want to be as good as we can be, it's got to start on the defensive end. We've honestly got a lot of offensive weapons, but the kids have committed to playing a lot of good defense."

Lehigh led for a majority of the game for 33:20 of the game's 40 minutes, while GW only led for 3:27.

Of the starters, Benz finished with seven points, seven rebounds four steals and a block. Hannah Hedstrom had two points, two assists and two steals, while Camryn Buhr joined Clougherty in double scoring figures with 10 points to go along with six rebounds, an assist and a steal.

The Mountain Hawks ended up shooting 37.7 percent (20-of-53) from the field, including 27.8 percent (5-for-18) from beyond and 73.7 percent (14-of-19) from the free throw line. Despite 28 turnovers, GW still managed to shoot 44.4 percent (20-for-45) from the field and 50 percent (7-for-14) from downtown during the game.

The win is Lehigh's third in a row to open the season 3-0 for the second consecutive season. With the victory, the Mountain Hawks are now 8-3 in Education Day games, winning the last four dating back to the 2015-16 season.

"It was a really neat day, it's a great environment, they love it," said Troyan. "You ask anyone in our program, this is their favorite game. They love putting on the golds (uniforms) for this game and just having a quality opponent in GW and to get a win against them is a big one for us."

The Mountain Hawks remain home for a 5:30 p.m. matchup on Monday, Nov. 18 at 5:30 p.m. against Central Connecticut State.

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Gallery: (11/13/2019) WBB vs. GW (Education Day) 11/13/2019