Lehigh uses Benz's 20 point effort to earn 68-38 win over Delaware State in opener

Wednesday, November 6

Dover, Del.

7 p.m.

Lehigh University

1-0,0-0Patriot

Delaware State

0-1,0-0MEAC

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Lehigh	14	17	17	20	68
Delaware St.	7	13	8	10	38

Photo by: Josh Liddick

Lehigh uses Benz's 20 point effort to earn 68-38 win over Delaware State in opener

11/6/2019 11:14:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

DOVER, Del. — After leading by 11 at the end of the first half, the Lehigh women's basketball team outscored the opposition 37-18 in the second half to get a 68-38 season opening win over Delaware State Tuesday night on the road. The story of the night was a stellar all-around performance for senior forward Cameryn Benz, who scored a game-high 20 points with five rebounds, while senior guard Camryn Buhr kicked off her 2019-20 campaign with a double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 11 boards.

For Benz, her 20-point performance was three points shy of her career-high 23 points set Nov. 29, 2018 vs. Cornell. It's just the second game of her career where she scored 20 or more points.

"Cam has improved so much just from her junior year to senior year," said head coach Sue Troyan. "We've seen her put it together in practice and it was nice to see her do this on an opening night game.

"She's just really maturing, not only from a basketball standpoint but she's honestly a leader on the team and her self-confidence is outstanding. She gave us a great effort tonight."

The win gives Lehigh a season-opening victory for the fifth time in the last six seasons. The victory is also the Mountain Hawks' third straight over Delaware State in the third all-time meeting.

The first quarter belonged to the Mountain Hawks, heading into the second with a 14-7 lead. Lehigh had some season-opening jitters for the most part, shooting just 30 percent (6-for-20) from the floor and 33.3 percent (2-for-6) from the 3-point line. Junior Mary Clougherty led the way with five points, an assist and a steal off the bench to pace the team. Lehigh's defense did its part early on, holding the Hornets to just an 18.8 percent mark (3-for-16) from the floor after the first stanza.

Lehigh opened up the second quarter on a 6-3 run heading into the media timeout. After the timeout, Benz converted on a layup to put the Mountain Hawks up 23-10 and then a shot from Camryn Buhr just outside the paint put Lehigh up 25-11 with 5:03 to play in the first half. Trailing 29-17, the Hornets scored two more baskets to close out the half. The Mountain Hawks led 31-20 after two quarters of play. Lehigh shot better in the second half, shooting 42.9 percent (6-for-14) from the floor and converted on all but one of its free throw attempts going 5-for-6 from the line.

The Mountain Hawks continued to take over to kick off the third quarter, going on a 9-4 run into the media timeout with 4:46 to play. Benz found her groove and poured in all nine of Lehigh's points at that time, including a 3-pointer to start it all off. Lehigh was able to draw a few fouls and get a couple more baskets to lead by 20 points to close out the third quarter.

Heading into the fourth quarter of the contest, the Mountain Hawks had opportunity to get a multitude of different players minutes to close out the game, up by 20 points. However, it was Benz who converted on two more shots to give Lehigh a 52-31 lead. Benz added on with her second 3-pointer of the game to take a 22-point lead over the Hornets. The Mountain Hawks ended up out-scoring Delaware State 20-10 in the fourth quarter to close out the game with a 68-38, 30-point victory.

"We talked a lot about not worrying about results, but really worrying about the process in everything we do," said Troyan. "That's just us bringing our best every day and making sure every day we get better individually and as a program.

"There will be games we lose, there will be games we win, but at the end of the day, at the end of February, our goal is to play our best basketball and feel like we have a team that can go to that point. We think that takes a little bit of the pressure off, these girls have high expectations for themselves, so the more we can focus on doing our best and just being ourselves, the better off we will be."

Benz and Buhr led the way for the Mountain Hawks, as sophomore forward Emma Grothaus scored six points off the bench in 20 minutes and tallied eight rebounds. Fellow sophomore, guard Clair Steele also scored six points and went 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. In 11 minutes off the bench, Mary Clougherty scored five points, all in the first half, while freshmen Anna Harvey and Frannie Hottinger each registered their first career points in the Brown and White.

Harvey scored three points on a layup and a foul shot, while Hottinger scored a basket and also grabbed her first career board.

The Mountain Hawks shot 37.5 percent (24-for-64) from the field and 69.6 percent (16-for-23) from the free throw line. Delaware State shot just 21.2 percent (14-for-66) from the field and 17.4 percent from the 3-point line (4-for-23), while making just six of its 15 free throw attempts (40 percent).

Lehigh out-rebounded the Hornets, 52-44 and scored 14 points off turnovers. The Mountain Hawks turned the ball over just 11 times, four less than Delaware State's 15 for the ballgame.

Lehigh will turn its attention to Merrimack on Saturday from North Andover, Mass. It will be the first match-up between the schools all-time and just the second Division I game for the Warriors this season. Merrimack started its season off with a 79-64 win over UMass on the road on Monday. Saturday's game will begin at 1 p.m. with audio on Lehighsports.com with Matt Markus.

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Gallery: (11/6/2019) WBB at Delaware State (11/7/19)