Whitlock's Career-High 33 Points Push Lehigh Past Penn State Hazleton 83-74

Thursday, December 18

Bethlehem, Pa.

7:00 PM

Lehigh University

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Penn State Hazleton

2-3

Penn St.-Hazleton

Lehigh

Photo by: Olivia Link

Whitlock's Career-High 33 Points Push Lehigh Past Penn State Hazleton 83-74

12/18/2025 10:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh men's basketball returned to the hardwood after a 12-day hiatus, welcoming the Penn State Hazleton Nittany Lions to Stabler Arena for Holiday Hoops on Thursday evening. A career-high 33 points from junior captain Nasir Whitlock helped pave the way for an 83-74 Mountain Hawk victory.

"Penn State Hazleton played very well," said Murray H. Goodman '48 head coach Brett Reed. "They made individual plays, individual shots, and made the plays that were available."

Lehigh (4-8) had never faced Hazleton (6-6) before Thursday night, last facing a Penn State satellite school in a 100-74 victory over Penn State Mont Alto in 2014. Reed is now 17-0 all-time against non-Division-I opponents.

The Nittany Lions kept pace with the Mountain Hawks through the first five minutes of the game thanks to Savion Pressley, who scored all of Hazleton's points to tie the game at 11-11. Lehigh found some separation with a 19-13 advantage, but Hazleton stormed back to tie the contest at 24 apiece with 8:15 to play.

After facing an early scare, Lehigh began to pull away, outscoring Hazleton 15-3 over the next four minutes to lead 39-27 with four minutes remaining in the half. The Nittany Lions managed to trim their deficit to seven, but a flurry of threes from Alfredo Addesa, Andrew Urosevic, and Peter Kramer helped Lehigh take a 49-35 lead into the locker room.

Hazleton came out of the gates strong to start the second half, conducting a 13-2 run through the first four minutes to cut the lead to two. Whitlock helped the Mountain Hawks gain more ground, scoring or assisting on Lehigh's next four buckets to go back up by 11.

The Nittany Lions continued to be a thorn in Lehigh's side, trimming their deficit to single-digits at multiple points in the second half. The Mountain Hawks never wavered offensively, riding Whitlock's hot hand down the stretch to go back up by 14 with under a minute to play. Two late Hazleton buckets set the score at 83-74 when the final buzzer sounded.

Lehigh posted shooting splits of 44.3% (27-61) from the field, 28.1% (9-32) from three and 76.9% (20-26) from the free throw line. Hazleton shot 40.8% (29-71) from the floor, 41.7% (10-24) from distance and 75.0% (6-8) from the charity stripe. The Mountain Hawks controlled the boards 46-35 and outscored the Nittany Lions 32-26 in the paint.

Whitlock was sensational, setting a new career-high of 33 points on 10-16 shooting and 11-13 from the free throw line. He has now scored 20+ points in five consecutive games and has reached 30 or more points twice this season.

"I knew I was getting close [to my career-high], but I was more focused on getting the win," said Whitlock. "I want to thank my teammates, coaches, and God. Coaches and teammates did the hard part, I did the easy part by doing the right thing in the right situations."

Sophomore Hank Alvey recorded his second consecutive double-double, logging 16 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks on an efficient 6-7 from the field and 4-4 from the line. Urosevic also reached double-figures, scoring 13 points with three triples in 27 minutes off the bench.

"[Hank] played like a warrior tonight," said Reed. "He ended up switching onto a lot of their guards, and he did so admirably."

Savion Pressley led the Nittany Lions with 27 points while Shamell Ponds (16p), Tyshaun Dukes (15p) and Andre Campbell (13p) joined him in double-figures.

The Mountain Hawks will wrap up the non-league portion of their schedule on Sunday, December 21 at 1 p.m. on the road against Monmouth University.

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