Courtesy of LehighSports.com
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh men’s basketball team hung tough for the early stages, but No. 15/18 Virginia used a pair of 10-0 first-half runs to turn a one-point game into a 16-point halftime lead, on its way to downing the Mountain Hawks, 75-54 on Saturday afternoon in front of 13,594 at John Paul Jones Arena. In the end, Lehigh scored the most points of any UVA opponent at JPJ Arena this season. Junior Lance Tejada led the charge for Lehigh with 22 points, his third game with 20+ points this season, while senior Kahron Ross had nine points and three assists to move within six of tying the school record for career assists. With the loss, the Mountain Hawks fall to 4-4 on the season while the Cavaliers improve to 8-0.
Lehigh finished the game shooting 40.4 percent from the field, five percent better than UVA was allowing opponents to shoot through seven games. The Mountain Hawks finished 41.7 percent from three-point range, 16.7 percent higher than opponents were shooting (25.0 percent). Despite being the most points by any team at UVA this season, the 54 points marked a season low for the Mountain Hawks. Entering Saturday, the Cavaliers ranked first nationally in scoring defense, allowing just 50.1 per contest.
“Give a lot of credit to Virginia’s defense,” said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. “They do an excellent job. They’re a nationally-renowned defense. What they can do to an offensive team is really remarkable in the grand scheme of things. We tried a couple different things but what really worked the best for us was giving the ball a little bit more space. Give our guys credit for making a little bit of an adjustment and finding different ways to score. We did a series of things from screening off the ball to screening on the ball to giving the ball some space. We actually had a nice flow of it in the second half (scoring 31 points).”
Tejada finished 8-of-14 from the field, including 5-of-8 from three-point range. Sophomore Pat Andree also had eight points and eight rebounds. Classmate Jordan Cohen added three points and seven rebounds to tie a career high.
“Lance is a good player. He found his opportunities,” said Reed. “A nice compliment we got from (UVA head coach) Coach Bennett is that our guys can be really hard to guard because we have multiple people, and Lance fits into that category. Generally speaking, our guards have played well for us and have gotten good point production, which is good to see. Tip our caps to the University of Virginia. It gives us a chance to really assess where we are against the country’s best, in the areas where we said we need to be really strong, even from the first practices. This is a game that we can learn and grow from.”
Tejada enjoyed a strong first half, scoring 11 of Lehigh’s 23 points. An early three-pointer evened the score at six with 16:21 remaining in the stanza then just 1:22 later, he knocked down another trey to pull the Mountain Hawks even at nine.
After two Ed Porter free throws pulled Lehigh within 12-11, the Cavaliers responded with a 10-0 run to give them a 22-11 lead. The Mountain Hawks came back with five consecutive points behind two Ross free throws and an Andree trey, but Virginia responded with another 10-0 run to extend its overall run to 20-5. The Cavaliers led 32-16 with 5:22 to go in the half.
Tejada continued his strong play late in the stanza with a three-pointer and tough shot as the shot clock expired, then Ross converted a coast-to-coast layup in the final seconds of the stanza to pull Lehigh within 39-23 following 20 minutes of play.
Lehigh scored four of the first six second-half points as a Tejada jumper pulled the Mountain Hawks within 41-27 with 17:38 remaining. A few minutes later, UVA knocked down two three-pointers in 59 seconds to open a 20-point, 49-29 lead with 15:18 on the clock.
From there, Virginia’s lead hovered between 13 and 23 for the remainder of the contest. The Mountain Hawks used a 6-0 surge, behind a Tejada three-point play and Andree three-pointer, to pull within 52-39 with 12:34 remaining, but that’s as close as they would get.
For the game, the Mountain Hawks shot 40 percent from the field (19-of-47), including 42 percent from three-point range (10-of-24). Virginia finished at 52 percent (30-of-58) and 36 percent from long distance (9-of-25). The Cavaliers won the battle of the boards, 31-28.
Lehigh will return home for two games next week, hosting Yale on Wednesday (Dec. 6) at 7 p.m. before welcoming Mount St. Mary’s on Saturday at 2 p.m.Tickets are on sale and can be purchased online by clicking here.
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