Courtesy of LehighSports.com
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Despite struggling offensively for much of the game, the Lehigh men’s basketball team forced 27 turnovers to hang with Monmouth, but in the end, the visitors surged past the Mountain Hawks in their home opener, 80-72 on Tuesday evening. Senior Kahron Ross finished with 13 points and a career-high six steals, also eclipsing 1,000 career points. Sophomore Jordan Cohen led the Lehigh offense with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
As a team, Lehigh finished with 10 steals, reaching double figures for a second straight game to begin the season. Ross’ six steals are tied for the fourth most in NCAA Division I so far this season while Lehigh’s 27 forced turnovers are most in Brett Reed’s 11-year tenure as head coach.
“We have a greater advantage this year of some increased perimeter depth, so it will allow us to hopefully increase the pressure level guarding the basketball,” said Reed. “It really worked to our advantage forcing some turnovers and speeding Monmouth up, but at other times, we were a little bit out of position. We really struggled being able to contain that dribble penetration from the top of the key down and that’s where either the ball handler scored, or they were getting a lot of drop passes, particularly to (Diago) Quinn in the second half for some easy finishes. We have to be better on the ball and we have to rotate better to help the helper in the half court.”
Ross knocked down a pair of free throws with 3:46 remaining in the second half to become the 35th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points, finishing the night 5-of-10 from the field, including 1-of-2 from three-point range. He added four assists and four rebounds, turning the ball over just once. As a team, the Mountain Hawks had just nine turnovers, tallying single-digit turnovers for the second straight game to begin the season while forcing 16 or more turnovers for a second consecutive contest. Lehigh forced 20 or more turnovers for the first time since forcing 22 on Dec. 1, 2012 against Fairleigh Dickinson.
Along with Cohen and Ross, junior Kyle Leufroy posted 11 points and five rebounds while sophomore Pat Andree had 10 points and three boards. Freshman Caleb Bennett had eight points, a block and steal.
Early on, Monmouth jumped out to leads of 2-0 and 4-2, but the Mountain Hawks used a 10-0 run, beginning with a Cohen trey and ending with a Bennett layup, to take a 12-4 lead with 12:56remaining in the first half.
A few minutes later, a Bennett layup gave the Mountain Hawks a 19-11 advantage, but Monmouth immediately responded with a 12-0 run capped off by a George Pappas three-pointer to give the Hawks a 23-19 lead with 4:51 remaining in the first half.
A Cohen steal and layup ended a 5:41 Mountain Hawks’ scoring drought, pulling Lehigh within 23-21. Monmouth’s lead swelled to eight with just over a minute left in the first, but an Andree trey in the final seconds pulled Lehigh within 33-28 at the half.
An Andree three just over two minutes into the second half pulled Lehigh within four at 39-35, but Monmouth scored nine of the next 11 points to open a double-figure advantage as a Micah Seaborn trey gave his team a 48-37 lead with 15:06 on the clock.
Lehigh pulled within single digits on multiple occasions, but Monmouth always had an answer. A Lance Tejada trey trimmed the Mountain Hawks’ deficit to 63-56 with 7:51 left in the second half, but Monmouth immediately went on a 7-0 run to take a 70-56 lead, on its way to the 80-72 victory.
For the game, Lehigh shot 39 percent (26-of-67), including 28 percent from three-point range (8-of-29). Monmouth finished at 52 percent (29-of-56) and 36 percent from long distance (8-of-22). Lehigh shot just 50 percent from the free throw line (12-of-24) while Monmouth shot 61 percent (14-of-23). Monmouth held a 53-24 edge in rebounds.
“I think the rebounding margin is a little bit misleading because they also had 27 turnovers so that’s a lot of possessions that don’t result in an opportunity for us to defensive rebound,” said Reed. “What I look at is the differential between our offensive rebounds and their offensive rebounds. They doubled us up (12-6). We played what I believe will be an uncharacteristic offensive game, missing shots from the free throw line and missing shots from the perimeter. We couldn’t really get into a great rhythm knocking down shots, but on the flip side of that, it creates opportunities for us to get some second-chance opportunities. Unfortunately, when we tried, Monmouth did a great job of getting out in transition and taking advantage of the open floor.”
The Mountain Hawks will play game two of a three-game homestand on Friday when they host defending MAAC Finalist Siena. Opening tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
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