The Lehigh women’s basketball team held the lead for the entire fourth quarter and secured an 83-74 win over Colgate University on Wednesday at Stabler Arena.
The Mountain Hawks (17-10, 10-6 Patriot) were consistent against Colgate, which is now in last place in the Patriot League after tonight’s game. There were four lead changes throughout the game, but the Mountain Hawks did not let the Raiders gain more than a four-point lead. Lehigh managed to pull ahead of Colgate by 12 points, their largest lead of the game, in the third quarter, helping the Hawks solidify the win.
Junior forward Lexi Martins had her 21st double-double of the season with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Sophomore guard Quinci Mann had 19 points as well, tying Martins for the team’s top scorer. Two sophomore guards reached a career high in points — Taylor Campbell had eight points and Bernadette Devaney had 12.
“Our team also fights hard for wins,” junior guard Kayla Burton said. “So I think just playing with a sense of urgency knowing that we only have 3 promised games left we really just played like it.”
The Mountain Hawks started off the game with high energy and positive attitudes keeping the Raiders off the scoreboard for the first three minutes, but a few minutes later Colgate crawled ahead to an 11-10 lead. The Mountain Hawks didn’t let that last long and pulled ahead to gain the lead. The first two quarters remained very close, the Mountain Hawks were able to sustain their position, barely staying ahead of the Raiders and went into half time with a 43-41 lead.
“The mentality for our team coming out into the second half was to get stops on defense and secure defensive rebounds,” Martins said. “Our offense was pretty consistent through out the game, so the focus was really on the defensive side.”
The Mountain Hawks succeeded in that, recording 16 defensive rebounds and only allowing Colgate to score 33 points in the second half compared to the 41 the Raiders scored in the first.
The Mountain Hawks offense was a main contributor to the team’s success. Mann totaled 10 points in the second half of the game and Martins followed with nine points and five rebounds. Delaney and senior forward Elizabeth Sharlow both added six points in the second half.
With only two more regular season games, the Mountain Hawks are looking ahead to prepare for the Patriot League Tournament, which they haven’t won since 2010.
“Going into the tournament, we definitely need to work on our defense,” senior forward Kerry Kinek said. “We have a lot of offensive weapons. The key for us will be stopping other teams’ offensive threats.”
With this win, Lehigh is third in the Patriot League standings and will receive a first round bye in the league tournament.
“We went into this game knowing the importance for playoff standings,” Kinek said. “We are fighting for a third place standing and a home quarterfinal game.”
Lehigh will host Army West Point this Saturday in their last home game of regular season at Stabler Arena.
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