Junior forward Lexi Martins made history Wednesday night at Stabler Arena, breaking the single season rebounding record of 344, which was previously her own.
“Lexi’s the best rebounder I’ve ever coached,” coach Sue Troyan said. “She is an undersized post player at 6 feet…It is a testament to her abilities and work. You don’t teach it.” Troyan said.
However, despite this record-breaking performance, the Lehigh women’s basketball team could not overcome Navy’s high-pressure defense, falling to the Midshipmen, 62-54.
Martins led the way for Lehigh (15-10, 8-6 Patriot), recording her 19th double-double of the season with 15 points and 14 rebounds.
Lehigh began with a three-point lead after the first quarter, but Navy overpowered the Hawks throughout the second quarter, outscoring Lehigh by 13 points.
“We’re disappointed with the outcome, we didn’t do a good job on defense,” Troyan said. “Navy’s double penetration cost us a lot of points in the paint.”
Navy outscored Lehigh 44-26 in the paint. The Midshipmen were also able to capitalize off of Lehigh turnovers, which directly resulted in 16 points, whereas Navy’s turnovers only led to seven Lehigh points.
Lehigh spread the offensive work around during the game. Senior forward Kerry Kinek, who played center during Wednesday’s game, was one of three Lehigh players to record at least 10 points along with Martins and sophomore guard Quinci Mann. Mann is averaging 13.1 points per game this season and is shooting 43.5 percent from 3-point range.
Lehigh drew fouls and limited Navy’s second-chance points, but in the end, it wasn’t enough.
“We struggled to execute the game plan,” Martins said. “When you play an academy team like that, they capitalize on mistakes and we just couldn’t overcome them tonight.”
During the fourth quarter, Lehigh closed in on Navy’s double-digit lead, bringing it to within one point. Mann put up five unanswered points to close the gap. However, following Mann’s baskets, Navy went on an 8-2 run, making it a seven-point cushion entering the final two minutes of the game.
“We were looking to get stops defensively down the stretch,” Kinek said. “We knew we needed stops in order to close out the game.”
Navy freshman guard Christina Potts proved to be an offensive challenge for Lehigh. Potts put up 14 points, six rebounds and five assists. Two costly Lehigh turnovers in the final minutes of the game gave Navy its opportunity to pad the lead. Troyan said this cost them key opportunities down the stretch to take back the lead.
Lehigh will prepare for its matchup against rival Lafayette College on Feb. 20 at 2 p.m. in Easton.
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