In the Mountain Hawks’ previous two games against Colgate University, they won by a combined margin of 32 points.
They were also coming off of a four-game winning streak during which they outscored their opponents by 77 points.
It just goes to show that the Patriot League Tournament is a whole different monster.
Lehigh (19-11, 13-6 Patriot) held on for the win Thursday in Stabler Arena, fending off Colgate 77-72 to advance to the Patriot League Tournament semifinals due in large part to key performances from the team’s seniors.
Senior Austin Price led the team in scoring with 27 points, while senior Tim Kempton recorded his 19th double-double of the season with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
The game was a nail-biter throughout, with Lehigh on the wrong side of a narrow margin for most of it.
The biggest test of the game came with 11:28 left when Kempton got his third and fourth fouls, forcing him to go to the bench with the team down a point. The team responded, going on an 18-8 run during the six and a half minutes Kempton was out.
“That’s why I continue to say we’re a team that’s hard to beat, because we can take any five guys off the court and put five guys out there,” Kempton said. “For our team to go on that run and pull away in that situation, that’s all I could ask for.”
Price, the only other senior on the court, motivated his teammates to step up in Kempton’s absence.
“On the bench, I was just telling everybody ‘next play, we have to be confident, we can do this, we can beat teams without (Kempton) on the court,’” Price said. “We definitely proved that by outscoring them by 10 points while he was on the bench.”
The run gave Lehigh a nine-point lead, the team’s largest of the game.
Coach Brett Reed praised the determination shown by the team during the stretch, noting specifically how the players rose to the occasion that presented itself.
They needed to, after the start that Lehigh had.
Nearly the entire team started off slowly in this one, with Lehigh not scoring its first points until almost four minutes into the game when Kempton hit a 3-pointer from the corner.
Kempton scored the first nine points of the game for Lehigh, including shooting 2-for-3 from distance. No other player got on the scoreboard for Lehigh until the first half was more than halfway complete.
Because of their inefficient shooting, the Mountain Hawks trailed for most of the first half, holding the lead for just under three minutes. They were down by as much as eight with 1:28 left to play before a 9-2 run brought them back within one.
The run was highlighted by a 3-pointer just before the buzzer from Price that caused the Stabler Arena crowd to erupt, one of the many times that happened during the game.
Five Lehigh blocks in the first five minutes, including four from Kempton, gave the fans the opportunity to get involved early.
“That’s what we try and do, we want to set the tone early,” Kempton said. “If Colgate comes out and takes us out of the game, that immediately takes the crowd of the game.”
It wasn’t until the second half when the crowd truly came alive. The fans were on their feet for nearly the entire final 20 minutes, urged on by the coaches and players. Assistant coach Harry Morra could be seen waving them on after Colgate turned the ball over on a shot clock violation with the lead having been cut down to two.
It wasn’t long after that when the momentum seemed to turn. Junior Kahron Ross hit two free throws to tie the game before sending the crowd into a frenzy with a layup to take the lead. Lehigh didn’t trail from that point forward.
“I thought it was terrific to be at home to have a strong crowd that was loud, into it – they were right there,” Reed said. “There were times where they were cheering, there were times that they were standing in disbelief from what had taken place out on the floor, and everything in between.”
The win was Lehigh’s fifth in a row, the team’s longest win streak of the season and its seventh win in eight games. It’s also the team’s fifth straight win over Colgate.
The Mountain Hawks will hit the road to face off against the No. 2 seed Boston University on Sunday in the semifinals.
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