Friday, November 19
Bethlehem, Pa.
5 p.m.
Lehigh University
3-1,0-0Patriot
91
vs
72
Mount St. Mary's
1-3,0-0NEC
1
2
3
4
F
Mount St. Mary's
15
20
22
15
72
Lehigh
22
17
32
20
91
Photo by: Josh Liddick
Grothaus, Hottinger lead Lehigh to 91-72 win over Mt. St. Mary's
11/19/2021 10:53:00 PM | Women's Basketball
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – It was a career night for two members of the Lehigh women's basketball team, especially so for senior forward Emma Grothaus who scored a career-high 31 points with 12 rebounds for her first double-double of the season, while junior wing Frannie Hottinger chipped in 26 points with eight boards as the Mountain Hawks (3-1) rolled to a 91-72 victory over Mount St. Mary's Friday evening at Stabler Arena.
Lehigh dominated shooting from the floor, going 51.5 percent (35-for-68) from the field including an astounding 75 percent (12-for-16) in the third quarter alone. The Mountain Hawks managed to drill 11 3-pointers at a rate of 39.3 percent while going 10-of-14 (71.4 percent) from the free throw line.
Hottinger (32 minutes) and Grothaus (31) both played the most time on the floor amongst their teammates and both had two of the best performances of their careers. It's the first time since Feb. 15, 2020 that the Mountain Hawks had two players register 20 or more-point games (Camryn Buhr 36, Grothaus 25).
"Emma and Frannie are our two captains and I thought they did a great job in terms of setting the tone on both ends," said head coach Sue Troyan. "In the second half, we made an adjustment to put Emma on No. 3 (Kendall Bresee) and I thought she did a great job defending her and taking her out of her comfort zone for the second half.
"Both of them offensively, we knew we had a mis-match inside and knew we wanted to take advantage of that. Our guards did a great job of looking for them inside and I thought both Frannie and Emma both played with a lot of composure."
The Mountain Hawks started the contest off with a bang, getting out to an early 10-0 lead, forcing The Mount to take a 30-second timeout at the 6:52 mark. Lehigh led by as many as 10 on five separate occasions, while the Mountaineers brought the deficit back within seven points heading into the second quarter.
Mount St. Mary's made a push to begin the second quarter, an 11-4 run to tie the game up at 26-26. Grothaus converted on five straight baskets to put the Mountain Hawks back up by five, 35-30, while jumpers from Hottinger and Megan Walker pushed Lehigh's halftime lead to four, 39-35.
Kendall Bresee swished two free throws with 7:15 left in the third quarter to cut the Lehigh lead to four, but it was all Mountain Hawks from there on out, going on a 24-15 run to close the stanza, Lehigh led by 14 points, 71-57 heading into the final frame.
After a fine shooting effort in the third quarter, the Mountain Hawks used a complete team performance to get out to as many as 20 points and settle for the 19-point, 91-72 victory over the Mountaineers.
While Grothaus and Hottinger carried Lehigh offensively, it also got great outings out of Walker (11 points on three 3-pointers) and Mackenzie Kramer with eight points. At the point, Clair Steele tallied five assists with five points in 26 minutes, while the Mountain Hawks forced 16 Mountaineer turnovers on five steals and four blocks.
"We knew we had to be grittier on the defensive end of the ball," Troyan said. "I thought we were better there and I thought we were better on the offensive end in terms of really focusing on getting the ball inside taking advantage of that mis-match. So, the execution on the offensive end was stronger and we played with a little more grittiness and toughness on the defensive end.
"We're going to give up points, but we're a high-scoring team and there's a lot of possessions in a game because of the pace that we play. We're really trying to focus less on points per game and more on field goal percentage defense as we measure ourselves, because games are going to be more high scoring based on the way we play the game this year."
For The Mount, Bresee led the team with 20 points on 6-of-16 shooting with six free throws and six rebounds with five assists. Michaela Harrison had 12 points, while Jessica Tomasetti scored 10.
Lehigh returns to Stabler Arena on Sunday, completing the weekend doubleheader against Merrimack at 2 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ (subscription required).
Like Lehigh Women's Basketball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for exclusive content, team updates and more.
Lehigh dominated shooting from the floor, going 51.5 percent (35-for-68) from the field including an astounding 75 percent (12-for-16) in the third quarter alone. The Mountain Hawks managed to drill 11 3-pointers at a rate of 39.3 percent while going 10-of-14 (71.4 percent) from the free throw line.
Hottinger (32 minutes) and Grothaus (31) both played the most time on the floor amongst their teammates and both had two of the best performances of their careers. It's the first time since Feb. 15, 2020 that the Mountain Hawks had two players register 20 or more-point games (Camryn Buhr 36, Grothaus 25).
"Emma and Frannie are our two captains and I thought they did a great job in terms of setting the tone on both ends," said head coach Sue Troyan. "In the second half, we made an adjustment to put Emma on No. 3 (Kendall Bresee) and I thought she did a great job defending her and taking her out of her comfort zone for the second half.
"Both of them offensively, we knew we had a mis-match inside and knew we wanted to take advantage of that. Our guards did a great job of looking for them inside and I thought both Frannie and Emma both played with a lot of composure."
The Mountain Hawks started the contest off with a bang, getting out to an early 10-0 lead, forcing The Mount to take a 30-second timeout at the 6:52 mark. Lehigh led by as many as 10 on five separate occasions, while the Mountaineers brought the deficit back within seven points heading into the second quarter.
Mount St. Mary's made a push to begin the second quarter, an 11-4 run to tie the game up at 26-26. Grothaus converted on five straight baskets to put the Mountain Hawks back up by five, 35-30, while jumpers from Hottinger and Megan Walker pushed Lehigh's halftime lead to four, 39-35.
Kendall Bresee swished two free throws with 7:15 left in the third quarter to cut the Lehigh lead to four, but it was all Mountain Hawks from there on out, going on a 24-15 run to close the stanza, Lehigh led by 14 points, 71-57 heading into the final frame.
After a fine shooting effort in the third quarter, the Mountain Hawks used a complete team performance to get out to as many as 20 points and settle for the 19-point, 91-72 victory over the Mountaineers.
While Grothaus and Hottinger carried Lehigh offensively, it also got great outings out of Walker (11 points on three 3-pointers) and Mackenzie Kramer with eight points. At the point, Clair Steele tallied five assists with five points in 26 minutes, while the Mountain Hawks forced 16 Mountaineer turnovers on five steals and four blocks.
"We knew we had to be grittier on the defensive end of the ball," Troyan said. "I thought we were better there and I thought we were better on the offensive end in terms of really focusing on getting the ball inside taking advantage of that mis-match. So, the execution on the offensive end was stronger and we played with a little more grittiness and toughness on the defensive end.
"We're going to give up points, but we're a high-scoring team and there's a lot of possessions in a game because of the pace that we play. We're really trying to focus less on points per game and more on field goal percentage defense as we measure ourselves, because games are going to be more high scoring based on the way we play the game this year."
For The Mount, Bresee led the team with 20 points on 6-of-16 shooting with six free throws and six rebounds with five assists. Michaela Harrison had 12 points, while Jessica Tomasetti scored 10.
Lehigh returns to Stabler Arena on Sunday, completing the weekend doubleheader against Merrimack at 2 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ (subscription required).
Like Lehigh Women's Basketball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for exclusive content, team updates and more.
Team Stats
MSM
Lehigh
FG%
.456
.515
3FG%
.524
.393
FT%
.750
.714
RB
28
39
TO
16
15
STL
5
5
Game Leaders
Pts
31
FGM
13
3FGM
0
FTM
5
Pts
26
FGM
10
3FGM
3
FTM
3
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
8
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's BasketballG/F
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
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