Saturday, December 4
Bethlehem, Pa.
2 p.m.
Lehigh University
6-3,0-0Patriot
79
vs
68
Binghamton
3-4,0-0America East
1
2
3
4
F
Binghamton
17
22
17
12
68
Lehigh
13
15
29
22
79
Photo by: Josh Liddick
Lehigh rallies back to beat Binghamton, 79-68
12/4/2021 6:10:00 PM | Women's Basketball
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Trailing by as many as 15 points in the closing seconds of the first half, the Lehigh women's basketball took over in the final 20 minutes, out-scoring Binghamton 51-29 in the second half to en route to a 79-68 comeback victory Saturday afternoon at Stabler Arena on 3's For A Cure Day presented by Red Robin in partnership with LLS. The Mountain Hawks (6-3) got productive scoring with four players finishing in double-figures led by 17 points for Frannie Hottinger, 16 for Megan Walker, 15 for Emma Grothaus and Mackenzie Kramer totaled 14 while two players – Hottinger and Grothaus – registered double-doubles with 12 and 13 rebounds, respectively.
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Having lost in two consecutive games on the schedule, the Mountain Hawks head into the two-week layoff with a win, not competing again until Dec. 18 vs. Delaware State at home.
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"In the first half, I didn't think we were playing at the flow of our offense," said head coach Sue Troyan. "We really emphasized at halftime that we wanted to play in the flow of our motion. I didn't think we were running any type of our offense during that stretch and their press probably disrupted us a little bit as well. We had some pretty good looks, but I didn't think our kids were focused in terms of being ready to shoot the ball. The timing was off in what we were doing.
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"Our defense getting stops helped us do what we needed to do in the second half. We pushed the tempo to the pace that we like to play at. This was a tough week for our kids with a challenging workload heading into finals week and I'm really proud of their hard work and dedication on the court today."
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Playing without senior point guard Clair Steele for the second straight game, first year forward Meghan O'Brien got the start and started the scoring as she put the Mountain Hawks on the board first with a layup. Binghamton quickly took over the lead with a four-point cushion at the 8:26 mark of the first quarter as Birna Benonysdottir laid the ball in for the 6-2 lead.
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The Bearcats never trailed for the remainder of the first stanza, leading by as many as nine points and settling for a 17-13 lead heading into the second. With 36 seconds on the clock, Walker converted on her first bucket of the contest for Lehigh to bring the score within just four points.
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Lehigh was able to come within four points of the Binghamton lead following a second chance layup for Hottinger off the Bearcat turnover, but the deficit inflated to seven points at 26-19 into the media timeout with 5:14 to play. Inserted into the lineup off the bench following the first break, first year Kaylee Van Eps drilled a 3-pointer to bring the Binghamton lead down to four points again, but five straight points made it 29-22 with 3:30 to go. An 8-2 Binghamton run in the final three minutes of the half pushed the Bearcats ahead by their largest lead of the game at 15 points with 35 seconds to go. Lehigh scored two buckets in the final 18 seconds to cut the gap to 11 points at 39-28 by the first half buzzer.
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Binghamton surely had the hot hand shooting the ball throughout the first half of play, going 50 percent (15-for-30) from the field and 60 percent (3-for-5) from long range, including a perfect 6-for-6 from the foul line. At that point in the contest, the Mountain Hawks were out looking for consistency, shooting just 28.6 percent (11-for-38) from the floor and converting on just one 3-pointer in 15 tries at a rate of 6.7 percent.
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The Bearcats started the second half out of the gate fast with a fast break layup off a bad pass turnover from O'Brien, taking a 41-28 lead with 9:26 to go.
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Lehigh began its ascent back to the top on an 11-4 run to that point after Hottinger made three straight shots to cut the gap to 45-39 with 7:20 left to play. Denai Bowman hit a step back jumper to have Binghamton go ahead by eight, but the Mountain Hawks used a 3-pointer from first year Ella Stemmer off the offensive rebound from O'Brien to go back within five points at 47-42 heading into the media timeout at 5:26.
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After Binghamton extended its lead back to seven points, two free throws from Jamie Behar and a 3-pointer for Walker brought Lehigh within two points at 49-47 with 4:03 to play. The Bearcats were able to go back ahead by six points with 2:58 left, but Lehigh used a 7-1 push after two foul shots from Hottinger and a second chance layup from Grothaus to tie the game at 54-54.
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With 29 seconds to go in the third quarter, Walker hit a clutch 3-pointer to put the Mountain Hawks in front for the first time since the opening possession of the first quarter, now leading 57-56 heading into the fourth and final stanza. Despite trailing by 11 at the start of the quarter, the Mountain Hawks went on a 29-17 run in the quarter to lead by one point after 10 minutes.
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Denai Bowman got a layup to fall for Binghamton for the first bucket of the first quarter, giving the Bearcats in what turned out to be their final lead of the contest. Lehigh re-took the lead on an Emma Grothaus second chance layup with her 10th rebound of the game off the Kramer miss and the Mountain Hawk lead ballooned to five points after Kramer swished a jumper with 7:27 on the clock.
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The Mountain Hawks continued to see their 3-pointers fall, as Grothaus got one to go with 5:45 remaining and Mackenzie Kramer had the other and drew the foul to put Lehigh up nine at 69-60. Lehigh led by 11, 71-60 at the media timeout with 4:51 remaining in regulation after Kramer got her 10th point of the contest on a layup. Â
Binghamton was able to trim the deficit to as few as nine points, but Kramer had two free throws with four seconds left to allow Lehigh to hang on for the 79-68 victory.
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In addition to the four leading scorers for the Mountain Hawks, Behar had five points to lead the second unit off the bench, as both Stemmer and Van Eps each tallied three points. Kramer finished with a game-high four assists while O'Brien finished with four points, five rebounds, three assists and three blocks, establishing herself on both offense and defense.
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The Mountain Hawks ended up shooting 36.8 percent (28-for-76) from the floor and 30 percent (9-for-30) from deep, while going 93.3 percent (14-for-15) from the free throw line. Binghamton went a cool 46.6 percent (27-for-58) from the field and 40 percent (4-for-10) from 3.
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Lehigh out-rebounded Binghamton, 47-43 and finished with the advantage in points from turnovers (17-10), second chance points (21-9) and bench points (13-4). The Bearcats had the edge in points in the paint (40-36) as well as points off fast breaks (12-3).
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Denai Bowman finished with a game-high 27 points and four rebounds, adding four steals and two blocks. Birna Benonysdottir had 19 points with five rebounds, adding three assists and a block. She also finished with a game-high seven turnovers, seven of the Bearcats' 19 for the afternoon.
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"We have a lot to improve upon going into this two-week break," said Troyan. "The good thing is that we have yet to play to what we're capable of playing at, on both ends of the floor. There's a lot of work to be done on both sides of the ball.
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"But the focus through the finals period is giving our team an opportunity to use it as a break from their studying. Our kids are taking some pretty challenging courses with challenging majors. We'll use the basketball piece of everything to allow our team to get a break."
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Lehigh will return to Stabler Arena on Saturday, Dec. 18 to face Delaware State in the final non-league home game of the year before Patriot League play begins. The matchup will be streamed live on ESPN+ (subscription required).
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Like Lehigh Women's Basketball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for exclusive content, team updates and more.
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Having lost in two consecutive games on the schedule, the Mountain Hawks head into the two-week layoff with a win, not competing again until Dec. 18 vs. Delaware State at home.
Â
"In the first half, I didn't think we were playing at the flow of our offense," said head coach Sue Troyan. "We really emphasized at halftime that we wanted to play in the flow of our motion. I didn't think we were running any type of our offense during that stretch and their press probably disrupted us a little bit as well. We had some pretty good looks, but I didn't think our kids were focused in terms of being ready to shoot the ball. The timing was off in what we were doing.
Â
"Our defense getting stops helped us do what we needed to do in the second half. We pushed the tempo to the pace that we like to play at. This was a tough week for our kids with a challenging workload heading into finals week and I'm really proud of their hard work and dedication on the court today."
Â
Playing without senior point guard Clair Steele for the second straight game, first year forward Meghan O'Brien got the start and started the scoring as she put the Mountain Hawks on the board first with a layup. Binghamton quickly took over the lead with a four-point cushion at the 8:26 mark of the first quarter as Birna Benonysdottir laid the ball in for the 6-2 lead.
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The Bearcats never trailed for the remainder of the first stanza, leading by as many as nine points and settling for a 17-13 lead heading into the second. With 36 seconds on the clock, Walker converted on her first bucket of the contest for Lehigh to bring the score within just four points.
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Lehigh was able to come within four points of the Binghamton lead following a second chance layup for Hottinger off the Bearcat turnover, but the deficit inflated to seven points at 26-19 into the media timeout with 5:14 to play. Inserted into the lineup off the bench following the first break, first year Kaylee Van Eps drilled a 3-pointer to bring the Binghamton lead down to four points again, but five straight points made it 29-22 with 3:30 to go. An 8-2 Binghamton run in the final three minutes of the half pushed the Bearcats ahead by their largest lead of the game at 15 points with 35 seconds to go. Lehigh scored two buckets in the final 18 seconds to cut the gap to 11 points at 39-28 by the first half buzzer.
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Binghamton surely had the hot hand shooting the ball throughout the first half of play, going 50 percent (15-for-30) from the field and 60 percent (3-for-5) from long range, including a perfect 6-for-6 from the foul line. At that point in the contest, the Mountain Hawks were out looking for consistency, shooting just 28.6 percent (11-for-38) from the floor and converting on just one 3-pointer in 15 tries at a rate of 6.7 percent.
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The Bearcats started the second half out of the gate fast with a fast break layup off a bad pass turnover from O'Brien, taking a 41-28 lead with 9:26 to go.
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Lehigh began its ascent back to the top on an 11-4 run to that point after Hottinger made three straight shots to cut the gap to 45-39 with 7:20 left to play. Denai Bowman hit a step back jumper to have Binghamton go ahead by eight, but the Mountain Hawks used a 3-pointer from first year Ella Stemmer off the offensive rebound from O'Brien to go back within five points at 47-42 heading into the media timeout at 5:26.
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After Binghamton extended its lead back to seven points, two free throws from Jamie Behar and a 3-pointer for Walker brought Lehigh within two points at 49-47 with 4:03 to play. The Bearcats were able to go back ahead by six points with 2:58 left, but Lehigh used a 7-1 push after two foul shots from Hottinger and a second chance layup from Grothaus to tie the game at 54-54.
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With 29 seconds to go in the third quarter, Walker hit a clutch 3-pointer to put the Mountain Hawks in front for the first time since the opening possession of the first quarter, now leading 57-56 heading into the fourth and final stanza. Despite trailing by 11 at the start of the quarter, the Mountain Hawks went on a 29-17 run in the quarter to lead by one point after 10 minutes.
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Denai Bowman got a layup to fall for Binghamton for the first bucket of the first quarter, giving the Bearcats in what turned out to be their final lead of the contest. Lehigh re-took the lead on an Emma Grothaus second chance layup with her 10th rebound of the game off the Kramer miss and the Mountain Hawk lead ballooned to five points after Kramer swished a jumper with 7:27 on the clock.
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The Mountain Hawks continued to see their 3-pointers fall, as Grothaus got one to go with 5:45 remaining and Mackenzie Kramer had the other and drew the foul to put Lehigh up nine at 69-60. Lehigh led by 11, 71-60 at the media timeout with 4:51 remaining in regulation after Kramer got her 10th point of the contest on a layup. Â
Binghamton was able to trim the deficit to as few as nine points, but Kramer had two free throws with four seconds left to allow Lehigh to hang on for the 79-68 victory.
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In addition to the four leading scorers for the Mountain Hawks, Behar had five points to lead the second unit off the bench, as both Stemmer and Van Eps each tallied three points. Kramer finished with a game-high four assists while O'Brien finished with four points, five rebounds, three assists and three blocks, establishing herself on both offense and defense.
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The Mountain Hawks ended up shooting 36.8 percent (28-for-76) from the floor and 30 percent (9-for-30) from deep, while going 93.3 percent (14-for-15) from the free throw line. Binghamton went a cool 46.6 percent (27-for-58) from the field and 40 percent (4-for-10) from 3.
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Lehigh out-rebounded Binghamton, 47-43 and finished with the advantage in points from turnovers (17-10), second chance points (21-9) and bench points (13-4). The Bearcats had the edge in points in the paint (40-36) as well as points off fast breaks (12-3).
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Denai Bowman finished with a game-high 27 points and four rebounds, adding four steals and two blocks. Birna Benonysdottir had 19 points with five rebounds, adding three assists and a block. She also finished with a game-high seven turnovers, seven of the Bearcats' 19 for the afternoon.
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"We have a lot to improve upon going into this two-week break," said Troyan. "The good thing is that we have yet to play to what we're capable of playing at, on both ends of the floor. There's a lot of work to be done on both sides of the ball.
Â
"But the focus through the finals period is giving our team an opportunity to use it as a break from their studying. Our kids are taking some pretty challenging courses with challenging majors. We'll use the basketball piece of everything to allow our team to get a break."
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Lehigh will return to Stabler Arena on Saturday, Dec. 18 to face Delaware State in the final non-league home game of the year before Patriot League play begins. The matchup will be streamed live on ESPN+ (subscription required).
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Like Lehigh Women's Basketball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for exclusive content, team updates and more.
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Team Stats
Bingha
Lehigh
FG%
.466
.368
3FG%
.400
.300
FT%
.769
.933
RB
33
47
TO
19
17
STL
10
10
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
17
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
6
Pts
16
FGM
6
3FGM
3
FTM
1
Pts
15
FGM
6
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
G/F
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's BasketballG/F
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
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