Courtesy of LehighSports.com
JONESBORO, Ark. – Trailing by as many as 29, including 20 with less than three minutes remaining, the Lehigh men’s basketball team staged a near miraculous comeback which fell just short as the Mountain Hawks fell at Arkansas State, 97-89 on Sunday afternoon. The Mountain Hawks staged a 21-7 run to pull as close as six in the final minute, but they couldn’t complete the comeback. In his homecoming of Jonesboro, junior Kahron Ross scored 21 points. Tim Kempton tied a career high with 30 points while adding 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.
Kempton scored 18 of his 30 points in the second-half, shooting a perfect 8-of-8 from the field to finish 13-of-18 for the game.
“We have to understand and do a better job, which starts with me, of making sure we establish ourselves inside,” said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. “Tim’s a very good player and we can work harder as an offensive unit to get him better touches, and our team better touches, instead of relying on the first open shot.”
The Mountain Hawks allowed 53 first-half points as Arkansas State shot 58 percent from the field over the first 20 minutes.
“With as deep as the ball was being penetrated, they were either at the line, scoring at the rim or from that position, every passing lane was open as well,” said Reed. “We did a poor job of being disruptive, forcing turnovers or even making them execute at a higher level to get the shots that they wanted. The tell-tale sign is for a team that doesn’t really rely on a lot of post-up play, they finished with 22 points in the paint. We knew what we were dealing with, but our inability to guard, particularly in the first half, was our downfall.”
Junior Brandon Alston helped spark the comeback, scoring a season-high 12 points (all in the second half) and grabbing a career-high eight rebounds. Freshman Jordan Cohen added 13 points.
Arkansas State scored first, but the Mountain Hawks responded with seven of the next 10 points as a four-point play from sophomore Kyle Leufroy gave Lehigh a 7-5 lead with 16:46 on the first-half clock.
The Red Wolves scored the next four points to retake a lead, then the teams went back and forth over the ensuing minutes. Cohen hit a pair of three-pointers in the span of 1:10, the second tying the score at 15 with 12:09 left in the first half.
Arkansas State responded in a big way, staging a 12-0 run which eventually extended to 22-4 as a Donte Thomas three-point play gave the Red Wolves a 37-19 advantage with 6:06 on the clock.
A three-point play by Ross pulled Lehigh within 15, but Arkansas State’s lead eventually reached 20 and then 21 as Deven Simms hit a free throw with just 0.3 seconds remaining to give his team a 53-32 lead at the half.
The Red Wolves’ Devin Carter opened the second half with one of his seven made three-pointers on the afternoon, but the Mountain Hawks responded with 11 of the next 15 points. Included was a 5-0 run from Leufroy and was capped off by consecutive Kempton layups to pull Lehigh within 60-43 with 16:17 on the clock.
Later in the half, Arkansas State staged an 8-0 run to open a 29-point, 74-45 point lead, with 11:26 remaining in the second half. From there, the Mountain Hawks clawed back with 13 of the next 16 points. The run was capped off by two straight Kempton baskets, pulling Lehigh within 77-60 with 5:38 remaining in the second half.
The lead reached 20 again, until the Mountain Hawks’ final comeback. Alston scored all 12 of his points over the final 3:27 as his corner three pulled Lehigh within 10 at 88-78 with 1:23 remaining. Eventually, a Cohen three-pointer pulled the Mountain Hawks within six (93-87), but only 14 seconds remained and Arkansas State was able to close out the victory.
For the game, Lehigh shot 49 percent from the field (34-of-69), but a season-low 28 percent from three-point range (8-of-29). Arkansas State finished at 53 percent (32-of-60), including 44 percent from three-point range (10-of-23). Lehigh held a 38-31 edge in rebounds.
In his homecoming game, Ross followed an 18-point performance at Mississippi State Friday with 21 points on Sunday, in a facility he played several games in high school.
“I’m disappointed for Kahron because I know he takes pride in basketball and his family has taken pride in him attending Lehigh University,” said Reed. “The community comes out and supports him. This is a tight-knit and basketball-driven community, but unfortunately with the exception of trying to keep it close at the end, we weren’t able to demonstrate what was the core of why he decided to come to Lehigh. That’s a commitment overall to the student-athlete experience, but also playing high-level basketball and taking pride in what we’re doing. I think we can grow from today, but unfortunately we weren’t able to put out the product that I would expect us to.”
The Mountain Hawks will return to Pennsylvania for a Wednesday evening road trip at La Salle. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
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