Clougherty's career performance helps Lehigh rout Army, 94-65

Saturday, February 1

West Point, N.Y.

1 p.m.

Lehigh University

14-7,6-4Patriot

Army West Point

5-16,1-9Patriot

Lehigh

Army West Point

Photo by: Josh Liddick

Clougherty's career performance helps Lehigh rout Army, 94-65

2/1/2020 5:24:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

WEST POINT, N.Y. — In need of a bounce-back victory, the Lehigh women's basketball team had what could be described as its best performance of the season, the largest scoring out-put and a career performance from junior Mary Clougherty led Lehigh to rout Army West Point, 94-65 Saturday afternoon at Christl Arena.

It was just one of those games for Clougherty, who finished with a career-high 24 points in 21 minutes, going 9-for-11 from the field and making a career-best six 3-pointers on seven attempts.

"I'm just super proud of her, I thought she came out fearless," said head coach Sue Troyan. "We talked a lot in the last couple games about pace of play and try to play a more up-tempo offense. I thought Mary did a great job coming off the bench, she was just shot-ready every time she caught the ball.

"She played truly inspired basketball today and just fed off the rest of the bench, honestly, and fed off her teammates."

In addition to Clougherty's big game, sophomore Emma Grothaus had a career-high six blocks in her first start since December. The six blocks are the most by a Lehigh player since Alexandra Yantzi had seven Jan. 25, 2014 at Lafayette.

"Emma did a great job today on the defensive end of the ball," said Troyan. "She missed a lot of layups early but didn't let that affect her defense, I thought she rebounded well, got some nice looks and did a better job finishing in the second half."

The first quarter belonged to Lehigh for most of it, especially in the beginning, as Camryn Buhr scored on a layup to put the Mountain Hawks up five, 9-4 with 6:18 left in the quarter. The Mountain Hawks had difficulty scoring near the end of the first quarter, prompting the Black Knights to score on a Hope Brown layup with 1:27 left to give Army the 12-11 lead. Clougherty scored five consecutive points to put Lehigh up 16-12 before Morgann Yancey made two free throws with six seconds left to cut the Lehigh lead to two, 16-14 at the end of one.

With a four point 20-16 lead with 7:21 left in the second quarter, Clougherty continued her surge with a layup wand a 3-pointer to add on to the Lehigh lead, 25-16 with 6:22 left in the half.

The Mountain Hawks led by as many as 12 points in the second quarter on two occasions, ending with a Clougherty 3-pointer with three seconds left to send Lehigh into the locker room with a 40-28 lead. That basket was Clougherty's 16th point of the game, matching her career-high previously set earlier this season at Merrimack.

Lehigh opened the second half on a 9-4 run, thanks to jumpers from Emma Grothaus and Camryn Buhr with a 3-pointer from Megan Walker added in. A Grothaus layup with 7:30 remaining upped the Lehigh advantage to 19 points, a 49-30 lead. After Clougherty nailed another jumper with 3:15 to play, Grothaus laid the ball in with 2:42 to play, extending Lehigh's lead to 21 points, 56-35.

Army West Point played well enough to bring the game back to 20 points at the end of the third quarter, but the Mountain Hawks were still able to keep their distance despite the Black Knights hitting their marks. Lehigh led, 68-48 heading into the final stanza.

A jumper from Walker with 5:29 left extended the lead to 26 and then layups from Mariah Sexe and Cameryn Benz got the Lehigh lead all the way to 30 points, a 89-59 advantage.

With a commanding lead, the Mountain Hawks were able to empty their bench a bit, giving Paige Galiani a chance to hit a 3-pointer with 1:33 to play, followed by Anna Harvey driving a layup with 58 seconds left to extend the lead to 31 points. Lehigh held on for the 94-65 victory over the Black Knights on the road, the third consecutive victory for the Mountain Hawks against Army West Point.

Clougherty's 24 paced Lehigh, followed by Buhr with 16 points and Grothaus with 14. Buhr added six rebounds, two assists and a block, while Grothaus grabbed eight boards, an assist and her career-high six rejections.

The Mountain Hawks were nearly automatic from the field, shooting 54.1 percent (40-for-74) including 68.8 percent (11-for-16) from the field in the fourth quarter. The team also shot 54.5 (12-for-22) percent from the 3-point line. Lehigh only turned the ball over six times, while Army West Point turned the ball over 15 times, leading to 20 Mountain Hawk points.

50 of Lehigh's 94 points were in the paint, while the bench out-scored Army West Point's, 42-14.

The victory snaps a four-game losing streak for Lehigh, increases the team's record to 8-2 on the road and puts the Mountain Hawks now just two games behind Bucknell for first place, after the Bison fell to Boston University on Saturday.

Lehigh has a week off between games and will take on Lafayette at Stabler Arena next Saturday at 7 p.m. on National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

Tickets for the game and any other game can be purchased here or by calling 610-7LU-GAME.

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For Gianna and @KobeBryant. 💛💜@maryyyy_44 dedicates her career-high 24-point performance to the Mamba and Mambacita. What a moment. #PatriotWBB pic.twitter.com/uQ5FJaa3XT
— Lehigh Women's Basketball (@LehighWBB) February 1, 2020