Sunday, March 21
San Antonio, Texas
8 p.m.
Lehigh University
10-6,7-5Patriot
53
vs
77
West Virginia (First Round)
22-6,13-5Big 12
1
2
3
4
F
Lehigh
13
13
13
14
53
West Virginia
15
21
29
12
77
Photo by: Bahram Mark Sobhani
Mountain Hawks' special season ends in Round of 64 vs. West Virginia
3/21/2021 11:27:00 PM | Women's Basketball
SAN ANTONIO – Despite a strong first half performance, a 21-3 run in the final five minutes of the third quarter marred the Lehigh women's basketball team, falling 77-53 to fourth-seeded West Virginia Sunday night at Bill Greehey Arena on the campus of St. Mary's University. The Mountain Hawks' (10-6) season comes to an end after qualifying for the NCAA Tournament as the Patriot League Champions for the first time since 2010.
"We've been through a lot this year," said head coach Sue Troyan. "Our girls have shown an incredible amount of resiliency throughout the year and did the same thing today. West Virginia is a very talented team. I thought we really fought hard in the first half and competed right with them and I thought we fought the whole game, honestly.
"But they got the better of us in the second half. Just super proud of our kids, super proud of how they represented Lehigh and our team and how they played together. I couldn't say enough about them given what they endured through the season to get here."
The Mountain Hawks scored first to open the game, getting out to an early 7-2 advantage, but the Mountaineers were able to cut the gap and lead by as many as four points, as Lehigh used two free throws to trail 15-13 at the end of the first 10 minutes.
West Virginia nailed back-to-back 3-pointers from Kysre Gondrezick to take a commanding eight-point advantage with 6:30 to go in the second, but Lehigh answered back with 3-pointers from Frannie Hottinger and Megan Walker to cut the Mountaineer lead to just two points with 5:11 to play. Hottinger was able to tie the game at 26 with a jumper in the paint but a 10-0 run to close the quarter had WVU leading 36-26 heading into the locker room.
The third quarter is where the Mountaineers shined the most, despite Lehigh getting two more 3-pointers to fall from Walker and Mary Clougherty, bringing the WVU lead to eight at 42-34. However it was a 21-3 run a little under five minutes and 16 unanswered points that had the Mountaineers leading by 26, 65-39 heading into the final frame.
Clougherty started the quarter off with made basket from beyond-the-arc, followed by two free throws by Walker to trail by 21, but the Mountaineers didn't let up, not letting Lehigh get any closer than 18 points as West Virginia held on for the 24-point win, 77-53.
Coming off a Patriot League Tournament MVP performance, junior forward Emma Grothaus continued her solid postseason by posting a team-high 14 points and seven rebounds, adding two assists and two steals. Frannie Hottinger had 12 points with five boards, while Megan Walker added 11 on a trio of 3-pointers. Clair Steele finished with six assists to lead her teammates, while Mary Clougherty added nine points on three 3-pointers off the bench.
The Mountain Hawks shot just 30.6 percent (19-for-62) from the field and 33.3 percent (10-for-30) from beyond, going 5-for-6 from the charity stripe.
Lehigh was able to force 19 West Virginia turnovers on the night with seven steals.
"Typically, our nonconference schedule would prepare us for a game like this because we tend to play two or three teams that are above our level, but we only had the opportunity to play 15 Patriot League games this season," said Troyan. "That probably hurt us a little bit honestly coming into this game. We were with them for about the first half and I think it got a little bit away from us just in terms of the speed and athleticism piece of it.
"In terms of the growth of our program, this was really important for us. It's been 11 years since we've been here. It was a big step of growth for our program winning the league championship, having a pretty young team get to experience an NCAA Tournament. We've got almost everybody coming back next year, so I think this was a really important experience in terms of their development going into next year, which should be one of the top teams in our league, hopefully getting back to this stage again."
After coming into the season picked to finish fourth and entering the Patriot League Tournament as the fourth-seed, the Mountain Hawks out-performed expectations all season long and ended up taking home a fourth Patriot League title and NCAA Tournament appearance.
Like Lehigh Women's Basketball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for exclusive content, team updates and more.Gallery: (3-21-2021) WBB vs. WVU (NCAA First Round), 3/21/21
"We've been through a lot this year," said head coach Sue Troyan. "Our girls have shown an incredible amount of resiliency throughout the year and did the same thing today. West Virginia is a very talented team. I thought we really fought hard in the first half and competed right with them and I thought we fought the whole game, honestly.
"But they got the better of us in the second half. Just super proud of our kids, super proud of how they represented Lehigh and our team and how they played together. I couldn't say enough about them given what they endured through the season to get here."
The Mountain Hawks scored first to open the game, getting out to an early 7-2 advantage, but the Mountaineers were able to cut the gap and lead by as many as four points, as Lehigh used two free throws to trail 15-13 at the end of the first 10 minutes.
West Virginia nailed back-to-back 3-pointers from Kysre Gondrezick to take a commanding eight-point advantage with 6:30 to go in the second, but Lehigh answered back with 3-pointers from Frannie Hottinger and Megan Walker to cut the Mountaineer lead to just two points with 5:11 to play. Hottinger was able to tie the game at 26 with a jumper in the paint but a 10-0 run to close the quarter had WVU leading 36-26 heading into the locker room.
The third quarter is where the Mountaineers shined the most, despite Lehigh getting two more 3-pointers to fall from Walker and Mary Clougherty, bringing the WVU lead to eight at 42-34. However it was a 21-3 run a little under five minutes and 16 unanswered points that had the Mountaineers leading by 26, 65-39 heading into the final frame.
Clougherty started the quarter off with made basket from beyond-the-arc, followed by two free throws by Walker to trail by 21, but the Mountaineers didn't let up, not letting Lehigh get any closer than 18 points as West Virginia held on for the 24-point win, 77-53.
Coming off a Patriot League Tournament MVP performance, junior forward Emma Grothaus continued her solid postseason by posting a team-high 14 points and seven rebounds, adding two assists and two steals. Frannie Hottinger had 12 points with five boards, while Megan Walker added 11 on a trio of 3-pointers. Clair Steele finished with six assists to lead her teammates, while Mary Clougherty added nine points on three 3-pointers off the bench.
The Mountain Hawks shot just 30.6 percent (19-for-62) from the field and 33.3 percent (10-for-30) from beyond, going 5-for-6 from the charity stripe.
Lehigh was able to force 19 West Virginia turnovers on the night with seven steals.
"Typically, our nonconference schedule would prepare us for a game like this because we tend to play two or three teams that are above our level, but we only had the opportunity to play 15 Patriot League games this season," said Troyan. "That probably hurt us a little bit honestly coming into this game. We were with them for about the first half and I think it got a little bit away from us just in terms of the speed and athleticism piece of it.
"In terms of the growth of our program, this was really important for us. It's been 11 years since we've been here. It was a big step of growth for our program winning the league championship, having a pretty young team get to experience an NCAA Tournament. We've got almost everybody coming back next year, so I think this was a really important experience in terms of their development going into next year, which should be one of the top teams in our league, hopefully getting back to this stage again."
After coming into the season picked to finish fourth and entering the Patriot League Tournament as the fourth-seed, the Mountain Hawks out-performed expectations all season long and ended up taking home a fourth Patriot League title and NCAA Tournament appearance.
Like Lehigh Women's Basketball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for exclusive content, team updates and more.
Team Stats
Lehigh
WVU
FG%
.306
.545
3FG%
.333
.533
FT%
.833
.818
RB
30
40
TO
18
19
STL
7
11
Game Leaders
Pts
14
FGM
6
3FGM
1
FTM
1
Pts
12
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
11
FGM
3
3FGM
3
FTM
2
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's BasketballG/F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
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