No. 16 Lehigh Falls To No. 16 Prairie View A&M 67-55 In NCAA Tournament

Wednesday, March 18

Dayton, Ohio

6:40 PM

Lehigh University

18-17,11-7Patriot

Prairie View A&M University

19-17,9-9SWAC

Prairie View

Lehigh

Photo by: Tommy Herstitch

No. 16 Lehigh Falls To No. 16 Prairie View A&M 67-55 In NCAA Tournament

3/18/2026 10:41:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

DAYTON, Ohio – A historic season for No. 16 Lehigh men's basketball came to a close on Wednesday evening in the NCAA Tournament First Four at UD Arena in a 67-55 loss to No. 16 Prairie View A&M.

"Give Prairie View a lot of credit, their length and athleticism was difficult for us to handle," said Murray H. Goodman '48 head coach Brett Reed. "I thought there was a lot of fight in our guys, but unfortunately we're coming away with the result we did not want."

Lehigh (18-17, 11-7 PL) made its sixth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and third under the direction of Reed after winning the program's fourth Patriot League championship on March 11. Prairie View (19-17, 9-9 SWAC) advances to the Round of 64 to face No. 1 Florida on Friday.

The Panthers scored five unanswered to begin the contest before a 7-0 run gave Lehigh the lead through the first four minutes. The game remained low scoring through the under 11 media timeout with the scored tied 11-11. The teams traded buckets until a pair of Andrew Urosevic threes gave the Mountain Hawks a 23-18 lead with 6:58 remaining in the half.

Lehigh extended its lead to eight on a Jalen Vazquez turnaround jumper before the Panthers trimmed their deficit to two with under three minutes to go in the half. Alvey, who nearly recorded a double-double in the first half, traded buckets with the Panthers in the final minutes of the first half to send Lehigh to the locker room with a 29-27 lead.

Prairie View took the lead to open the second half, outscoring Lehigh 7-1 through the first three minutes to lead by five. Another Benoit triple trimmed Lehigh's deficit to two before a Cory Wells jumper pushed the Panther lead back to four. After not scoring in the first half, Nasir Whitlock drilled a triple that brought Lehigh within two with 13 minutes to go in the half.

The Panthers extended their lead to eight out of the under 12 media timeout on a pair of free throws from Dontae Horne. A Wells jumper extended Prairie View's lead to ten and forced a Lehigh timeout. Out of the break, Joshua Ingram knocked down a corner three to trim the deficit to seven at the under eight media timeout.

Trailing by 11, Whitlock hit a driving layup to cut the deficit to single digits before Horne responded to keep the Panthers up double-digits. A Hassane Diallo and-one pushed Prairie View's lead to 13, a deficit the Mountain Hawks ultimately would not overcome.

Lehigh shot 36.2% (21-58) from the field, 25.0% (6-24) from three, and 58.3% (7-12) from the free throw line. Prairie View posted shooting splits of 47.4% (27-57) from the floor, 33.3% (3-9) from distance, and 83.3% (10-12) from the charity stripe. The Mountain Hawks won the battle on the boards 39-34, but the Panthers forced 16 Lehigh turnovers while only committing nine themselves.

Alvey led the way for Lehigh with a double-double of 23 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. The sophomore big man also dished out three assists. Benoit finished with eight points and five rebounds, Urosevic added eight off the bench, and Ingram chipped in seven points, seven rebounds, and two assists.

Horne posted a game-high 25 points while Wells recorded a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds. Lance Williams also finished in double-figures for the Panthers with ten.

The Mountain Hawks now set their sights on the offseason.

"This game doesn't define the type of season these young men had," said Reed. "They decided to do something together with unity, trust, a great deal of commitment, and they didn't waver. When there was adversity, they leaned into it and it actually pulled them together even more… For these young men, not only do I love them, I also respect them."

Like Lehigh men's basketball on Facebook, follow on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.