The sounds of clapping and whistles echoed throughout the walls of Stabler Arena on Sunday afternoon. Students and parents bull-rushed the court as the final buzzer sounded, embracing each other and the players.
Amidst the crowd laid the Patriot League trophy, which was lifted by all members of the Lehigh women’s basketball team.
White t-shirts and grey hats scattered the Lehigh logo at center court instead of the traditional brown and white Lehigh jerseys. The clothing labels made it official—2025 Patriot League Champions.
As the camera shutters clicked, all players and staff members climbed the ladder one by one to cut the nets down. Coach Addie Micir sliced the final piece of the net down, twirled it in the air and fired it into the crowd of excited players.
With the nets down, it was finally official—the Lehigh Mountain Hawks were on their way to the Big Dance.
In an all-around team effort, the Lehigh women’s basketball team defeated Army 74-62 Sunday afternoon at Stabler Arena, punching their ticket to March Madness and winning the Patriot League Title.
The Mountain Hawks improved to 27-6 (15-3 Patriot League), their most wins in a season since 2009-10, when they had 29. The Black Knights fell to 24-7 (14-4 Patriot League).
Fifth-year wing Maddie Albrecht, junior forward Lily Fandre and senior guard and captain Colleen McQuillen each scored 13 points to lead the Mountain Hawks. Albrecht added 10 rebounds, recording a double-double. Senior guard and captain Ella Stemmer scored 12 points, and senior guard and forward Remi Sisselman added 11 points off the bench.
Army senior guard Trinity Hardy tallied a game-high 20 points on 36.4% shooting from the field, while sophomore guard Camryn Tade followed suit with 17 points and three 3-pointers.
Both teams were evenly matched early. The teams found themselves deadlocked at 14 points to end the period. Army held a slight edge in shooting efficiency, shooting 54.5% from the field and 66.7% from three. The Mountain Hawks made over half their shot attempts, but were unable to capitalize on four attempts from beyond the arc.
The Black Knights scored efficiently to open the game, building an immediate five-point lead off back-to-back baskets from Tade. However, both teams traded baskets, creating four lead changes for the remainder of the quarter.
The Mountain Hawks scored all their points in the quarter in the paint, with two coming on the last possession of the quarter.
Senior forward Meghan O’Brien fired a pass from the top of the key to Fandre, who scored a reverse layup at the buzzer to tie the game. The crowd erupted as Fandre celebrated with her teammates.
Lehigh women’s basketball senior forward Meghan O’Brien squares up Army sophomore forward Kya Smith in the Patriot League Championship on Sunday at Stabler Arena. Lehigh won 74-62. (Ellis Krusch/B&W Staff)
The energy carried into the second quarter, where the Mountain Hawk offense exploded on an 11-2 run. McQuillen led the charge with two layups. Fandre drained a triple and a free throw and Albrecht added a three to extend Lehigh’s advantage.
Army only made one field goal for the first six minutes of the quarter. However, they fought back. Following Lehigh’s run, Army outscored the Mountain Hawks 16-5 in the final four minutes of the quarter.
Hardy scored three layups. Sophomore forward Tya Smith crashed the glass hard for a tip-shot and added two free-throws. After sophomore guard and forward Fiona Hastick and Tade sunk triples, Army regained the lead, sending the bench and visiting crowd into a frenzy.
When the second quarter concluded, Army had flipped the game, holding a two-point lead at halftime.
“The message at halftime was we have to do us better, and we have to contain Trinity (Hardy),” Micir said. “Army’s a really good team, they can get downhill. I thought we made some really good defensive adjustments. We rebounded really well on the defensive end.”
Neither team backed down in the second half, as physicality became apparent. Players dove on the floor for loose balls, battled for every rebound and applied heavy on-ball pressure. The Mountain Hawks forced multiple crucial shot clock violations, while Army forced errant passes and turnovers.
The defenses locked up the high-powered offenses, who mustered a combined 11 points through the first five minutes of the quarter.
However, Lehigh’s depth broke through.
While Hardy continued to knife her way into the paint for layups, sophomore forward Whitney Lind scored six consecutive Lehigh points to recapture the lead.
Then, Sisselman, who had stepped up throughout the tournament, delivered in key moments. Sisselman came off the bench with two minutes to play in the third quarter and immediately scored an and-one layup. She added another layup to keep a two possession lead for Lehigh and generated instant offense off the bench.
Sisselman went a perfect 4-4 in all of her field goals and 3-3 in free throws for her game-changing 11 points.
“Remi has been our X-factor,” Micir said. “She brings rebounding, and she brings some size inside, and they weren’t willing to help. So it was Remi time, and she pulled through.”
Lehigh women’s basketball senior guard and forward Remi Sisselman catches a pass for a layup in the Patriot League Championship on Sunday at Stabler Arena. Lehigh defeated Army 74-62. (Luke Kaiser/B&W Staff)
Sisselman credited Lehigh’s depth and a next man up mentality as a key factor in her success.
“We take pride in our depth. That’s something that is really, really unique with this team,” Sisselman said. “I was ready for when my name was gonna be called. I knew it would be called, and I knew all the little things at both ends that I had to do to help this team at this Patriot League Tournament.”
In the fourth quarter, Lehigh pulled away. A 10-0 late in the period pushed Lehigh’s lead to double-digits. The Mountain Hawks sank their free throws when Army began intentionally fouling, and retained the lead until the final buzzer. They finished the game shooting 15-17 from the free-throw line.
Following the game, Albrecht, McQuillen and Stemmer were named Patriot League All-Tournament players. Albrecht was also named the Patriot League Tournament MVP.
The win represented Albrecht’s second Patriot League Title. As a first-year, Albrecht took part in the prior 2020-21 championship when they defeated Boston University in the title game to advance to March Madness.
McQuillen said the team’s ability to grow from tough losses and moments helped build the team back to a championship squad.
“The biggest thing was not letting losses sidetrack us from what we wanted to accomplish,” McQuillen said. “I took a lot of those losses as lessons learned, and the common denominator was us not doing us to the best of our capability. Learning from that and knowing how good we are when we do what we do—we’re unstoppable.”
Looking forward to the tournament, the Mountain Hawks will square off against a familiar foe.
Lehigh will play Duke in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, looking to repeat history the men’s team pulled off 13 years ago.
Lehigh women’s basketball sophomore guard Gracyn Lovette looks to make a pass in the Patriot League Championship on Sunday at Stabler Arena. Lehigh defeated Army 74-62. (Olivia Link/B&W Staff)
The Lehigh women’s basketball team celebrates from the bench at the Patriot League Championship on Sunday at Stabler Arena. Lehigh defeated Army 74-62. (Ellis Krusch/B&W Staff)
Lehigh women’s basketball fifth-year wing Maddie Albrecht fires a pass over Army sophomore forward Kya Smith in the Patriot League Championship on Sunday at Stabler Arena. Lehigh won 74-62. (Ellis Krusch/B&W Staff)
Lehigh women’s basketball senior guard Colleen McQuillen goes up for a layup in the Patriot League Championship on Sunday at Stabler Arena. Lehigh won 74-62. (Olivia Link/B&W Staff)
Lehigh women’s basketball fifth-year wing Maddie Albrecht fights for a loose ball in the Patriot League Championship on Sunday at Stabler Arena. Lehigh defeated Army 74-62. (Olivia Link/B&W Staff)
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