Women’s basketball defeats Loyola on senior day

Lehigh women’s basketball honored five seniors in a hard-fought win against Loyola on senior day at Stabler Arena on Sunday.

At 8-8, Lehigh came in one spot behind Loyola’s 10-7 record in Patriot League play, but outlasted the Greyhounds in a convincing 82-64 victory. 

Lehigh needed a win in order to secure a bye to the quarter finals for the Patriot League tournament next week, and they did just that.

The Mountain Hawks were clinical from the three-point range, with senior guard Paige Galiani hitting three first quarter three-point shots. 

Loyola’s zone, however, forced Lehigh to rely solely on perimeter jump shooting early in the game, which stifled Lehigh once their shots stopped falling.

Loyola attacked the basket against Lehigh’s defense and was able to find seams to the rim in the first quarter, but Lehigh finished the quarter with a narrow 15-14 lead.

In the second quarter, with senior guard Hannah Hedstrom pushing the pace, Lehigh found holes in Loyola’s defense. Hedstom’s secondary fast break led to openings for herself and others, scoring herself and finding sophomore guard Megan Walker for two second quarter jumpers. 

Coach Sue Troyan was pleased with the way the team executed their gameplan.

“That was a point of emphasis, honestly, coming into the game — that was the best when we can transition and get out and go,” Troyan said. “We know they were going to put full court pressure on us. It was important that we can attack that pressure and look to score and I thought Hannah did a great job of breaking that pressure and our guards did a good job finding the shooters.”

Walker scored all over the court in the second frame, hitting three jumpers and getting to the hole on a set play.

Lehigh’s improved pace in the second quarter helped them grow their lead to double digits. Their defense and jump shooting allowed them to maintain that lead throughout the half, on top 37-27 going into the halftime break Lehigh shot 40 percent from three in the first half and led for nearly 18 out of 20 minutes in the first half, controlling the tempo of the game.

Walker finished the half as the leading score with 10 points.

Loyola opened the second half strong, not letting Lehigh get out in transition or get to the basket in their half court offense.  Loyola shrunk Lehigh’s lead to 40-34, with Lehigh’s only real offense coming from Galiani’s three-point shooting.

Again, Lehigh turned to Hedstrom for a spark on senior night. Hedstrom proceeded to get a quick steal and score in transition, and then continued to propel Lehigh by pushing the pace and creating offense for others. 

“That’s been our game plan throughout the second half of conference play,” Hedstrom said. “We have more bodies and were quicker than teams, so we can get them on their heels — that’s to our advantage. I thought we did a good job executing it and I thought our shooters were ready to score once they got it.”

Lehigh’s transition offense and inside-out attack led to a 9-2 run, which was capped off by a three-point field goal from junior guard Mary Clougherty.

Lehigh led after three quarters, 54-44.

The fourth quarter started with Lehigh taking off in the half court. The Mountain Hawks looked comfortable in their zone offense, finding the high post constantly throughout the quarter. 

Once the zone collapsed, Lehigh was able to find open shooters for three and open players on the baseline for layups. 

The offensive explosion led to Lehigh going up 67-49 with 5:00 to go in the fourth quarter, taking complete control of the contest. 

Clougherty found her rhythm in the fourth quarter against the zone, hitting a three and a pull-up jump shot.

Troyan started all five seniors on senior day and Galiani, who averages 1.5 points per game, was rewarded by having a career night, finishing with 18 points. 

“I have a lot of confidence in our seniors to do that,”  Troyan said. “They have given a tremendous amount to our program over the last four years. They deserve ive it, each one of them deserves to be in the starting lineup and each one of them has confidence to do what they do, and Paige is a great example. Someone who for four years has accepted her role without question and been a team first player. She gets the start and has a career night.”

Galiani’s  night was topped off with her hitting two threes to end the game, giving her six total threes, shooting 6 for 10 from the floor. 

Lehigh finished the game with a commanding 82-64 victory over Loyola, shooting 43 percent as a team from three and leading for nearly 38 minutes.

Lehigh’s bench also outscored Loyola 42-7.

With the win, Lehigh clinches a spot in the Patriot League quarterfinals and will resume play on March 4 at Colgate for its last regular season game.