Saturday, January 22
Bethlehem, Pa.
2 p.m.
Lehigh University
13-5,5-2Patriot
79
vs
67
Boston U.
10-8,6-1Patriot
1
2
3
4
F
Boston U.
12
14
24
17
67
Lehigh
22
16
19
22
79
Photo by: Peter Ewen
Mountain Hawks knock off unbeaten Boston U. in wire-to-wire win
1/22/2022 6:44:00 PM | Women's Basketball
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The good times keep rolling on for the Lehigh women's basketball team, knocking off previously unbeaten Boston University (10-8, 6-1 PL), 79-64 Saturday afternoon at Stabler Arena. The win is the Mountain Hawks' (13-5, 5-2 PL) third straight and for the second game in a row, is a wire-to-wire victory, leading from the initial tip-off until the final buzzer. In addition, Lehigh improves to 10-2 at home, the program's best start since 2010.
For the second consecutive game, senior guard Megan Walker starred for the Mountain Hawks with a team-high 20 points on four 3-pointers with four rebounds. Senior Emma Grothaus registered a 17-point, 13-rebound double-double on 6-of-10 shooting from the field, also adding three assists. Senior guard Clair Steele finished just two points and one assist shy of a point-assist double-double, what would have been Lehigh's first since Erica Prosser in 2011. She accumulated eight points with a career-high tying nine assists, going 4-of-5 from the free throw line.
The Mountain Hawks shot an efficient 46.8 percent (29-for-62) from the field and 30 percent (9-for-30) from beyond-the-arc, while out-rebounding the Terriers, 46-34 on the afternoon.
"We prepared for them (BU) like we prepare for any team all year," said head coach Sue Troyan. "Being in the position that we're in, I think we expect to see everybody's best game and I think that has helped us get to where we are now. Our focus coming in was making sure we controlled the boards and making sure we forced them into taking tough, contested shots.
"And then executing on the offensive end, we wanted to make sure the tempo was the pace that we wanted to play and not have the game slowed down. I thought our kids did a really good job of executing all of those areas."
Lehigh used a 3-pointer from first year Meghan O'Brien to get out to an early lead and saw it balloon to a 7-4 advantage over BU heading into the media timeout with 4:59 to go. A 15-6 run over the next five minutes of the quarter had the Mountain Hawks in front, 22-12 after 10 minutes. Both Walker and O'Brien each tallied five points, totaling 10 of the team's 22 in the frame, while sophomore Jamie Behar had four boards.
BU scored first in the second quarter to cut the lead to eight and again with 5:35 to go to bring it back down to six points, but Lehigh scored four straight – courtesy of field goals from Behar and an and-1 from Steele – to take a 10-point cushion at the 4:25 media timeout. Steele converted on one of her two foul shot attempts to give the Mountain Hawks a 29-18 lead with 4:25 to play. The Terriers pulled back within seven points on a Maren Durant layup with 2:43 on the clock, but the Lehigh offense came back to life and went on a 7-2 push to close out the quarter with a 38-26 lead.
Grothaus drew a foul and hit both free throws to kick off the third quarter with a 14-point lead for the Mountain Hawks with 9:33 to go. A driving layup from Mackenzie Kramer and a layup off a turnover from Grothaus had Lehigh ahead 16, 44-28 with 8:24 left in the third quarter. Sydney Johnson got BU back within single-digits at the 7:13 mark, but five straight for Lehigh had the Mountain Hawks ahead, 49-35 with 4:45 left. Anna Harvey capped an 8-2 scoring run to put Lehigh back up by 16 points, causing the Terriers to spend a timeout with 2:01 left in the frame. BU went on a 9-0 run for the remainder of the quarter, trailing the Mountain Hawks 57-50 heading into the fourth.
BU cut the Lehigh lead to as little as four points with 5:49 to go in regulation following a two from Emily Esposito, but the Mountain Hawks scored seven straight to take an 11-point lead with 4:05 left following a 3-pointer from Walker. Lehigh never let BU get any closer than six points, controlling possession for the rest of the contest and coming away with a 12-point, 79-67 victory.
"BU is a good team, so you knew they were going to make a run at some point, so it was good to be in that situation, honestly," Troyan said. "In the first half, they missed a lot of tough shots and our goal was to force them into taking those kinds of shots. But our girls were able to stay really composed and I give our seniors a lot of credit with Megan (Walker) and her tenacity on the defensive end and Emma (Grothaus) on how she controlled the boards. Clair (Steele) controlled the tempo of the game and found her open teammates.
"To have three seniors that can do all of those things speaks to the maturity of the team and speaks to how they responded when BU made their run. Our seniors deserve credit for steadying the game when things got tight towards the end."
Besides the 10 or more point performances from Walker (20) and Grothaus (17), Kramer also surpassed the 10-point plateau with 11, going along with her two rebounds and two assists. Harvey led the bench with six points, while Ella Stemmer had five and Behar also finished with five, along with seven boards. Walker also recorded two steals and has now tallied at least one steal in all 18 games this season so far.
The Lehigh defense held BU to 41.4 percent (29-for-70) shooting from the field and just 16.7 percent (3-for-18) shooting from beyond-the-arc. The Terriers shot just 50 percent (6-for-12) from the charity stripe in the loss.
Lehigh finished with edge in points off fast breaks (22-10) and bench points (18-6), while second chance points were all tied at 8-8.
For BU, Sydney Johnson led the way with 24 points on 11 field goals with five rebounds and three assists. Maren Durant added 22 points with eight boards and one block.
The Mountain Hawks head on the road Wednesday to face Army West Point at 6 p.m., looking for their fourth straight win. 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.
Gallery: (1-22-2022) WBB vs. Boston U., 1/22/22
For the second consecutive game, senior guard Megan Walker starred for the Mountain Hawks with a team-high 20 points on four 3-pointers with four rebounds. Senior Emma Grothaus registered a 17-point, 13-rebound double-double on 6-of-10 shooting from the field, also adding three assists. Senior guard Clair Steele finished just two points and one assist shy of a point-assist double-double, what would have been Lehigh's first since Erica Prosser in 2011. She accumulated eight points with a career-high tying nine assists, going 4-of-5 from the free throw line.
The Mountain Hawks shot an efficient 46.8 percent (29-for-62) from the field and 30 percent (9-for-30) from beyond-the-arc, while out-rebounding the Terriers, 46-34 on the afternoon.
"We prepared for them (BU) like we prepare for any team all year," said head coach Sue Troyan. "Being in the position that we're in, I think we expect to see everybody's best game and I think that has helped us get to where we are now. Our focus coming in was making sure we controlled the boards and making sure we forced them into taking tough, contested shots.
"And then executing on the offensive end, we wanted to make sure the tempo was the pace that we wanted to play and not have the game slowed down. I thought our kids did a really good job of executing all of those areas."
Lehigh used a 3-pointer from first year Meghan O'Brien to get out to an early lead and saw it balloon to a 7-4 advantage over BU heading into the media timeout with 4:59 to go. A 15-6 run over the next five minutes of the quarter had the Mountain Hawks in front, 22-12 after 10 minutes. Both Walker and O'Brien each tallied five points, totaling 10 of the team's 22 in the frame, while sophomore Jamie Behar had four boards.
BU scored first in the second quarter to cut the lead to eight and again with 5:35 to go to bring it back down to six points, but Lehigh scored four straight – courtesy of field goals from Behar and an and-1 from Steele – to take a 10-point cushion at the 4:25 media timeout. Steele converted on one of her two foul shot attempts to give the Mountain Hawks a 29-18 lead with 4:25 to play. The Terriers pulled back within seven points on a Maren Durant layup with 2:43 on the clock, but the Lehigh offense came back to life and went on a 7-2 push to close out the quarter with a 38-26 lead.
Despite missing all five of its 3-point field goal attempts in the second quarter, Lehigh still managed to shoot 33.3 percent (6-for-18) in the second stanza to lead by 12 by the end of the first 20 minutes of action. BU missed all eight of its 3-pointers in the half, going 0-for-8 from beyond-the-arc to that point.🏀 @LehighWBB hands Boston U its first @PatriotLeague loss of the season in a rematch of last year's title game.@MarchMadnessWBB | @ESPN_WomenHoop pic.twitter.com/WRciefcQpK
— Patriot League on ESPN (@PatriotLeagueTV) January 22, 2022
Grothaus drew a foul and hit both free throws to kick off the third quarter with a 14-point lead for the Mountain Hawks with 9:33 to go. A driving layup from Mackenzie Kramer and a layup off a turnover from Grothaus had Lehigh ahead 16, 44-28 with 8:24 left in the third quarter. Sydney Johnson got BU back within single-digits at the 7:13 mark, but five straight for Lehigh had the Mountain Hawks ahead, 49-35 with 4:45 left. Anna Harvey capped an 8-2 scoring run to put Lehigh back up by 16 points, causing the Terriers to spend a timeout with 2:01 left in the frame. BU went on a 9-0 run for the remainder of the quarter, trailing the Mountain Hawks 57-50 heading into the fourth.
BU cut the Lehigh lead to as little as four points with 5:49 to go in regulation following a two from Emily Esposito, but the Mountain Hawks scored seven straight to take an 11-point lead with 4:05 left following a 3-pointer from Walker. Lehigh never let BU get any closer than six points, controlling possession for the rest of the contest and coming away with a 12-point, 79-67 victory.
"BU is a good team, so you knew they were going to make a run at some point, so it was good to be in that situation, honestly," Troyan said. "In the first half, they missed a lot of tough shots and our goal was to force them into taking those kinds of shots. But our girls were able to stay really composed and I give our seniors a lot of credit with Megan (Walker) and her tenacity on the defensive end and Emma (Grothaus) on how she controlled the boards. Clair (Steele) controlled the tempo of the game and found her open teammates.
"To have three seniors that can do all of those things speaks to the maturity of the team and speaks to how they responded when BU made their run. Our seniors deserve credit for steadying the game when things got tight towards the end."
Besides the 10 or more point performances from Walker (20) and Grothaus (17), Kramer also surpassed the 10-point plateau with 11, going along with her two rebounds and two assists. Harvey led the bench with six points, while Ella Stemmer had five and Behar also finished with five, along with seven boards. Walker also recorded two steals and has now tallied at least one steal in all 18 games this season so far.
The Lehigh defense held BU to 41.4 percent (29-for-70) shooting from the field and just 16.7 percent (3-for-18) shooting from beyond-the-arc. The Terriers shot just 50 percent (6-for-12) from the charity stripe in the loss.
Lehigh finished with edge in points off fast breaks (22-10) and bench points (18-6), while second chance points were all tied at 8-8.
For BU, Sydney Johnson led the way with 24 points on 11 field goals with five rebounds and three assists. Maren Durant added 22 points with eight boards and one block.
The Mountain Hawks head on the road Wednesday to face Army West Point at 6 p.m., looking for their fourth straight win. 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
BU
Lehigh
FG%
.414
.468
3FG%
.167
.300
FT%
.500
.750
RB
34
46
TO
9
15
STL
4
4
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
20
FGM
7
3FGM
4
FTM
2
Pts
17
FGM
6
3FGM
1
FTM
4
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Pts
8
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
G/F
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
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