Despite suffering a 69-49 loss to Army West Point Saturday at Stabler Arena, junior forward Lexi Martins became the 18th person in Lehigh women’s basketball history to score 1,000 points.
“It’s a cool accomplishment and milestone to hit,” Martins said. “Coming into Lehigh, I don’t think I would’ve ever thought that I would get to do that here, even though I did it in high school.”
Martins led the team in both scoring and rebounds against Army, with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Senior forward Kerry Kinek was also a top scoring contributor with 11 points, playing her last regular season home game for the Mountain Hawks.
“A lot of our families are here (tonight), so we really wanted to get a win for everyone that has supported us for the past four years,” Kinek said.
The team celebrated Senior Night, honoring Kinek and their three other seniors – guards Elizabeth Jordan and Amina Affini and forward Liz Sharlow, who was second in rebounds in the game with nine.
With the season coming to a close on March 2 and the Patriot League Championship beginning March 7, the Mountain Hawks look to learn from this loss and work out some flaws in hopes for postseason success.
“There’s a lot we can learn from the film,” coach Sue Troyan said. “We have to be better on the defensive end, and I thought Army did a great job of taking us out of what we wanted to do on the offensive end. We need to play better on both ends of the court.”
Kinek echoed Troyan’s sentiment.
“I think we need to pick up our defense – that was our weakness tonight – and also how we handle full-court pressure,” Kinek said.
The Mountain Hawks are currently tied for third in the Patriot League with College of the Holy Cross and Loyola University (Maryland). The team’s final game at Colgate University will be crucial in determining whether or not the Hawks will play at home during the quarterfinals.
Troyan said Lehigh could finish anywhere from the third seed to the sixth seed. The Hawks will only host a home game if they’re a third or fourth seed.
Even with the loss, Martins still shows confidence that her team can do well in the Patriot League Tournament.
“I think despite this, we are still feeling pretty confident,” Martins said. “It’s really hard to beat a team three times in a season, and the two top teams (Army and Bucknell University) have beat us both twice, so I think we’re taking that with steam on our backs. We need to continue focusing on defense and making that a priority for us.”
The Mountain Hawks will travel to Hamilton, New York, to take on Colgate on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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