Saturday, January 15
Baltimore, Md.
2 p.m.
Lehigh University
11-5,3-2Patriot
72
at
61
Loyola (Md.)
3-11,0-4Patriot
1
2
3
4
F
Lehigh
16
19
22
15
72
Loyola Maryland
12
14
17
18
61
Photo by: Josh Liddick
Stemmer sparks Lehigh to 72-61 victory at Loyola
1/15/2022 5:58:00 PM | Women's Basketball
BALTIMORE – Kicked off by an impressive first half showing out of first year guard Ella Stemmer, who scored 12 of her team-high 15 points in the first quarter, the Lehigh women's basketball team led for almost the entirety of the contest en route to a 72-61 victory over Loyola Maryland Saturday afternoon at Reitz Arena. The win snaps a two-game losing streak as the Mountain Hawks (11-5, 3-2 PL) were led offensively by the four-headed scoring tandem of Stemmer, Mackenzie Kramer (15), Emma Grothaus (12) and Megan Walker (10).
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"I thought Ella stepped in and gave our team a huge spark off the bench today," said head coach Sue Troyan. "We've talked a lot about the importance of players stepping up in Frannie (Hottinger's) absence and providing a scoring punch to our offense. We have a number of players who are capable of doing what Ella did today, it will be important for our continued development that players trust in their abilities to contribute in similar ways."
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"I thought our team did a good job of sharing the ball and finding the open players today and I thought we had a good balance of inside and perimeter looks," Troyan said. "For the most part, we had a number of clean looks from the 3 and did a good job of taking what the defense gave us. Ella certainly provided the needed spark and confidence to knock them down, and others followed her lead today."
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Walker had Lehigh on the board first to kick off the game and Loyola took its first and only lead of the game with 8:16 to play on a Bri Rozzi 3-point jumper. Stemmer then went on her spurt a little more than halfway through the first frame by scoring nine straight points on a trio of 3-pointers to give the Mountain Hawks an 11-5 advantage. Loyola cut the gap to one with 3:35 on the clock, but Stemmer's fourth 3-pointer and a driving layup from fellow first year Kaylee Van Eps had the Mountain Hawks in front by four, 16-12 after the first 10 minutes.
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Kramer scored her first points of the contest out of the first break in the second quarter, a 3-pointer to extend Lehigh's lead to seven. Grothaus drilled a 3-pointer with 7:54 left to push the lead to double-digits, forcing Loyola to take a timeout. An 8-4 Lehigh run had the Mountain Hawks ahead by 12 with 3:05 left in the half and the Greyhounds were able to cut the deficit to nine points at the end of the half as Lehigh led, 35-26.
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Lehigh came out of the gates in the third quarter roaring after Grothaus converted on a driving layup to extend the lead to 11 points. The Greyhounds stuck around to trail by seven points with 7:45 on the clock, but a 9-0 Lehigh run pushed the lead to a game-high 16 point cushion following Stemmer's fifth and final 3-pointer of the contest. Loyola got back within nine points again with 2:38 on the clock, but a couple personal fouls sent Grothaus and Steele to the line to extend the lead to 12 points and a driving layup from Walker with 31 seconds to go had the Mountain Hawks ahead, 57-43 heading into the final stanza.
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While Kramer extended Lehigh's lead to 17 points with 9:47 to go, the Greyhounds started to claw back, going on a 9-0 run to get back within seven points at the 5:49 mark of the fourth quarter. Van Eps quickly answered back with a 3-pointer with 5:33 to go to put the Mountain Hawks back up by 10. Loyola got back within eight points, but Lehigh turned around and went on a 7-4 push to conclude the game, as the Mountain Hawks prevailed with the 72-61 final.
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The four players who scored in double-figures were nearly joined by two more players as Van Eps finished with nine points and Steele finished with eight. The Mountain Hawks recorded 16 assists on 24 made field goals led by a trio for Grothaus, Kramer and Meghan O'Brien.
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"Our team is at its best when we share the ball, execute with confidence and play unselfishly as a team," said Troyan. "Our balanced attack today was a step in the right direction, we had a number of different players step up and contribute.
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"We're at our best and a pretty tough team to defend when all our players look at themselves as scoring threats in this offense."
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Even in the win, Lehigh still led the contest in turnovers at 15-9. It also had the edge in second chance points (7-5), points off fast breaks (11-4) and bench points (26-22). The defense held Loyola to 37.5 percent (24-for-64) from the field and 23.5 percent (4-for-17) from beyond-the-arc. Lehigh shot 71.4 percent (10-for-14) from the free throw line.
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"Building our confidence in what we do continues to be a priority (with shifting roles with Frannie's injury) and we need to continue to work on our offensive execution, continue to value the basketball and continue to make progress on the defensive end," said Troyan. "I thought we played some pretty tough defense today and forced Loyola into tough shots. Defensive rebounding will definitely also be a priority for us the rest of the way."
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For the Greyhounds, it was Bri Rozzi who led the team with 13 points, while Lex Therien had a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double. Rozzi and Taleah Dixon recorded four assists each.
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The Mountain Hawks return to Stabler Arena on Wednesday evening for start of a two-game homestand, hosting Navy at 6 p.m., streamed live on ESPN+ (subscription required). Tickets can be purchased through LehighTickets.com or by calling 610-7LU-GAME.
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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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"I thought Ella stepped in and gave our team a huge spark off the bench today," said head coach Sue Troyan. "We've talked a lot about the importance of players stepping up in Frannie (Hottinger's) absence and providing a scoring punch to our offense. We have a number of players who are capable of doing what Ella did today, it will be important for our continued development that players trust in their abilities to contribute in similar ways."
Overall shooting and 3-point shooting were certainly focal points in the win as Lehigh shot 44.4 percent (24-for-54) from the field and 40 percent (14-for-35) from long range. The Mountain Hawks' 14 3-pointers were the program's second-highest mark of the season so far and were two off the program and Patriot League-record 16 set against American in the 2020-21 campaign.She can't stop! 👀😤
— Lehigh Women's Basketball (@LehighWBB) January 15, 2022
What a performance out of @ellastemmer, her FIFTH triple of the day.
Watch: https://t.co/I5CjS43uNe pic.twitter.com/WtwLtiYXzx
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"I thought our team did a good job of sharing the ball and finding the open players today and I thought we had a good balance of inside and perimeter looks," Troyan said. "For the most part, we had a number of clean looks from the 3 and did a good job of taking what the defense gave us. Ella certainly provided the needed spark and confidence to knock them down, and others followed her lead today."
Â
Walker had Lehigh on the board first to kick off the game and Loyola took its first and only lead of the game with 8:16 to play on a Bri Rozzi 3-point jumper. Stemmer then went on her spurt a little more than halfway through the first frame by scoring nine straight points on a trio of 3-pointers to give the Mountain Hawks an 11-5 advantage. Loyola cut the gap to one with 3:35 on the clock, but Stemmer's fourth 3-pointer and a driving layup from fellow first year Kaylee Van Eps had the Mountain Hawks in front by four, 16-12 after the first 10 minutes.
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Kramer scored her first points of the contest out of the first break in the second quarter, a 3-pointer to extend Lehigh's lead to seven. Grothaus drilled a 3-pointer with 7:54 left to push the lead to double-digits, forcing Loyola to take a timeout. An 8-4 Lehigh run had the Mountain Hawks ahead by 12 with 3:05 left in the half and the Greyhounds were able to cut the deficit to nine points at the end of the half as Lehigh led, 35-26.
The Mountain Hawks shot 44.8 percent from the field in the first half, tallying nine assists on 13 made shots through the first 20 minutes of action.🎯 @MackenzieK23
— Lehigh Women's Basketball (@LehighWBB) January 15, 2022
Watch: https://t.co/yuIrpp0tjI pic.twitter.com/kLjuVNGU6A
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Lehigh came out of the gates in the third quarter roaring after Grothaus converted on a driving layup to extend the lead to 11 points. The Greyhounds stuck around to trail by seven points with 7:45 on the clock, but a 9-0 Lehigh run pushed the lead to a game-high 16 point cushion following Stemmer's fifth and final 3-pointer of the contest. Loyola got back within nine points again with 2:38 on the clock, but a couple personal fouls sent Grothaus and Steele to the line to extend the lead to 12 points and a driving layup from Walker with 31 seconds to go had the Mountain Hawks ahead, 57-43 heading into the final stanza.
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While Kramer extended Lehigh's lead to 17 points with 9:47 to go, the Greyhounds started to claw back, going on a 9-0 run to get back within seven points at the 5:49 mark of the fourth quarter. Van Eps quickly answered back with a 3-pointer with 5:33 to go to put the Mountain Hawks back up by 10. Loyola got back within eight points, but Lehigh turned around and went on a 7-4 push to conclude the game, as the Mountain Hawks prevailed with the 72-61 final.
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The four players who scored in double-figures were nearly joined by two more players as Van Eps finished with nine points and Steele finished with eight. The Mountain Hawks recorded 16 assists on 24 made field goals led by a trio for Grothaus, Kramer and Meghan O'Brien.
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"Our team is at its best when we share the ball, execute with confidence and play unselfishly as a team," said Troyan. "Our balanced attack today was a step in the right direction, we had a number of different players step up and contribute.
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"We're at our best and a pretty tough team to defend when all our players look at themselves as scoring threats in this offense."
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Even in the win, Lehigh still led the contest in turnovers at 15-9. It also had the edge in second chance points (7-5), points off fast breaks (11-4) and bench points (26-22). The defense held Loyola to 37.5 percent (24-for-64) from the field and 23.5 percent (4-for-17) from beyond-the-arc. Lehigh shot 71.4 percent (10-for-14) from the free throw line.
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"Building our confidence in what we do continues to be a priority (with shifting roles with Frannie's injury) and we need to continue to work on our offensive execution, continue to value the basketball and continue to make progress on the defensive end," said Troyan. "I thought we played some pretty tough defense today and forced Loyola into tough shots. Defensive rebounding will definitely also be a priority for us the rest of the way."
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For the Greyhounds, it was Bri Rozzi who led the team with 13 points, while Lex Therien had a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double. Rozzi and Taleah Dixon recorded four assists each.
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The Mountain Hawks return to Stabler Arena on Wednesday evening for start of a two-game homestand, hosting Navy at 6 p.m., streamed live on ESPN+ (subscription required). Tickets can be purchased through LehighTickets.com or by calling 610-7LU-GAME.
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Like Lehigh Women's Basketball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for exclusive content, team updates and more.
Team Stats
Lehigh
Loyola
FG%
.444
.375
3FG%
.400
.235
FT%
.714
.900
RB
35
35
TO
15
9
STL
4
6
Game Leaders
Pts
15
FGM
5
3FGM
5
FTM
0
Pts
15
FGM
5
3FGM
5
FTM
0
Pts
12
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
3
Pts
10
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
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/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
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/ Women's BasketballG
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