Saturday, January 23
Bethlehem, Pa.
12 p.m.

Lehigh University

5-2,5-2Patriot

87
vs
68

Holy Cross

4-3,4-3Patriot

1
2
3
4
F
Holy Cross
17
18
18
15
68
Lehigh
23
21
25
18
87
Photo by: Josh Liddick

Mountain Hawks, Sexe silence the Saders, 87-68

1/23/2021 4:57:00 PM | Women's Basketball

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The Lehigh women's basketball team is back in the win column, as the Mountain Hawks cruised to a 21-point victory over Holy Cross Saturday afternoon at Stabler Arena, 87-68. The win is Lehigh's fifth of the campaign, improving to 5-2 overall while the Crusaders see their four-game win streak snapped and are now 4-3.
 
It was a career afternoon for senior forward Mariah Sexe, who posted a career-high 25 points and 10 rebounds en route to her first double-double of the season and of her career.
 
"Mariah was running the floor really well today," said head coach Sue Troyan following the victory. "Her teammates were looking for her. I thought she just played within herself and has done that all year. When other people are scoring, she's getting them the ball. She's really a team-first kid and will do whatever the team needs to win.
 
"This was a game where they were putting a lot of pressure on us in the perimeter and we thought we had a mismatch with their bigs inside. I give her a lot of credit for this one."
 
The Mountain Hawks also were extremely efficient distributing the ball with 27 assists as a team, most by the program in a single game since at least the 2013-14 season. Junior guard Clair Steele kept her average up with eight assists, while senior guard Mary Clougherty had six.
 
Holy Cross kept the score close in the first quarter, trailing by just one point with 4:26 to go after Bronagh Power-Cassidy hit two foul shots, but the Mountain Hawks went on a mini 5-0 run to take a six point lead with 3:30 left. An Anna Harvey 3-pointer made it a seven-point game and a Mariah Sexe layup with just over a minute left kept it at seven as Lehigh lead 23-17 heading into the second quarter.
 
Freshman guard Mackenzie Kramer started the second quarter off the way she finished the first with a 3-pointer to extend Lehigh's advantage to 26-17. Freshman Maddie Albrecht powered herself to the rim, got the basket to fall and earned the foul for the 3-point play, extending the Mountain Hawks' lead to 29-19 with 9:05 left.
 
Seniors Sexe and Mary Clougherty made the Crusader defense work in the later stages of the second frame, first a layup for Sexe and then a fast break layup by Clougherty off the steal. The Mountain Hawks took a 13-point lead, 39-26 into the media timeout with 3:57 to play in the first half.
 
Coming out of the timeout, the Mountain Hawks saw their lead dwindle by the hands of the Crusaders, as Holy Cross went on a 9-2 run after being down 14 points to being down just seven with 1:02 to go. Harvey converted on two shots from the stripe with 12 seconds left to take a nine-point, 44-35 lead into the locker room.
 
The Mountain Hawks shot the ball pretty well from the field in the first 20 minutes, shooting 42.9 percent (18-for-42) and held the Crusaders to just 25 percent (3-for-12) from beyond-the-arc.
 
Sexe was the hot hand to begin the third quarter, picking up four points in a two-minute span, tying her career-high in points with 14 on a layup with 6:37 to go to give the Mountain Hawks a 12-point cushion. She got to 16 points on the very next play, extending the lead to 14 points and then a 3-pointer with 4:43 left gave Lehigh a 57-40 advantage.
 
Lehigh continued to pour on the points with a 3-pointer from Kramer and a layup from freshman Jamie Behar to give the Mountain Hawks their largest lead of the game to that point at 22 points, leading 62-40 with 3:53 left in the quarter.
 
The Mountain Hawks ended up out-scoring Holy Cross, 25-18 in the third frame, as the Crusaders got a 3-pointer from Kelly Flaherty to fall at the buzzer with Lehigh leading 69-53.
 
The fourth quarter saw Sexe score six unanswered points to begin the stanza and got her total up to 25 and the Mountain Hawks' lead to 19 with 6:17 to play.
 
Coming out of the media timeout with 4:44 left, the Crusaders were able to bring the deficit back down to 13 points, but the Mountain Hawks were able to continue to gain separation off five points from Frannie Hottinger and a layup from Katie Rice.
 
Making the first appearance of her career, freshman guard Fabienne Eggenschwiler drilled a 3-pointer with 54 seconds to play, ballooning Lehigh's lead to 21 points as the Mountain Hawks held on to the 87-68 victory.
 
Three Mountain Hawks scored in double-figures led by Mariah Sexe with 25 points. Frannie Hottinger added 18 points while Mackenzie Kramer finished with 12. Sexe and Hottinger both recorded double-doubles with 10 rebounds each. Kramer led the way with four 3-pointers while Clair Steele led her teammates with eight assists.
 
"The way we played today is the strength of our offense," said Troyan. "Obviously we are heavily dictated by shooting threes but our philosophy is that we either take threes or layups. They were pushing us off the line to take away the three and I thought our team adjusted well and made the reads and got the ball to the paint. We made a pretty great adjustment after they took away our perimeter shot."
 
Lehigh shot 48.7 percent (37-for-76) from the field and 30.8 percent (8-for-26) from beyond-the-arc. 54 of the Mountain Hawks' 87 points were scored in the paint, while they scored 17 of them from turnovers.
 
The Crusaders shot 36.2 percent (25-for-69) from the field and 32 percent (8-for-25) from beyond-the-arc.
 
The Mountain Hawks had their largest lead of the game at 22 points with 3:53 left in the third quarter, while the Crusaders led by two with 7:52 remaining in the first. The lead changed twice and was tied three times. Lehigh led the entire game except for 43 seconds.
 
Lehigh will host Holy Cross again at noon on Sunday, streamed live on ESPN+ with Matt Markus (PxP) and Matt Kerr (Color) on the call.
 
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Team Stats

HolyCr
Lehigh
FG%
.362
.487
3FG%
.320
.308
FT%
.833
.714
RB
42
42
TO
19
13
STL
9
6

Game Leaders

Pts
25
FGM
12
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Pts
18
FGM
8
3FGM
1
FTM
1
Pts
12
FGM
4
3FGM
4
FTM
0
Pts
6
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
0

Players Mentioned

G
/ Women's Basketball
G/F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G/F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
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