Courtesy of LehighSports.com
HAMILTON, N.Y. – A strong all-around effort helped the Lehigh men’s basketball team overcome an early 10-2 deficit and cruise past Colgate on Wednesday evening, 76-62. The Mountain Hawks (12-8, 6-3 Patriot League) responded from the early deficit with a 19-5 run and wouldn’t look back. Senior Tim Kempton led the way with his 11th double-double of the season, posting 23 points and 10 rebounds. Junior Kahron Ross nearly missed a triple-double, posting 16 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.
“I loved our defensive energy, particularly in some very strong stretches,” said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. “Kahron Ross set the tone. He pressured the basketball and made Colgate uncomfortable. Other people followed suit. We saw guys cheering each other on, diving for loose balls and making plays. Ultimately, we forced Colgate into 11 first-half turnovers, which gave us a lot of transition opportunities. I’m really pleased that we were able to establish ourselves with defensive urgency.”
Kempton scored 17 of his points in the first half, including a stretch of eight straight Lehigh points within 58-second span late in the first half to help the Mountain Hawks take a 10-point halftime advantage. Sophomore Kyle Leufroy added 11 points while junior Brandon Alston had 10.
Colgate jumped out to a 10-2 lead, led by a pair of three-pointers from Sean O’Brien. Lehigh went on to score five of the next six points, all from senior Austin Price, to pull within 11-7 with 15:37 on the first-half clock. Lehigh continued its success, eventually extending its run to 19-5 as an Alston trey capped off 10 straight Lehigh points, giving the Mountain Hawks a 21-15 lead with 10:24 remaining in the first.
“I felt like we had the idea that we wanted to come out and pressure, but our execution wasn’t full throttle. We were there, but we weren’t necessarily as aggressive as we needed to be,” said Reed. “We also got a nice contribution from Brandon off the bench. Will Rayman was hurting us in the beginning of the game, but Brandon came in and helped to neutralize that scoring punch. The ball started moving around. Our perimeter defensive energy picked up and we held them to one shot. I was a little concerned in that first media timeout with as much as they were scoring. I knew we would have to make a change and fortunately, our guys responded.”
Lehigh’s led shrunk to at 28-27, but the Mountain Hawks ended the half with 12 of the final 15 points. Kempton scored eight of those points, behind a dunk and consecutive three-pointers. A Ross driving layup gave Lehigh a 40-30 lead at the half.
Colgate slowly inched back into the game early in the second half as a Francisco Amiel three-pointer pulled the Raiders within 50-45 with 13:55 remaining.
Lehigh answered with four straight points behind an Alston layup and Kempton jumper, eventually extending its run to 12-2 as a Jordan Cohen floater gave the Mountain Hawks a 62-47 advantage with 8:48 remaining.
The Raiders pulled as close as 11, but Lehigh extended its lead from there, taking a 20-point advantage with just over one minute remaining following a Price trey with 1:07 on the clock as Lehigh easily cruised to the 76-62 win.
For the game, Lehigh shot 51.9 percent from the field (28-of-54), including 50 percent from three-point range (8-of-16). Colgate finished at 39.2 percent (20-of-51) and 50 percent from long distance (12-of-24).
The Mountain Hawks return home on Monday, Jan. 30 to host Boston University at 7 p.m. in a nationally-televised game on CBS Sports Network.
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