Coming off of an unconventional start to the season with the first forfeit in program history and multiple roster changes after injuries, coach Addie Micir has told the Lehigh women’s basketball team to rely on “flexecution.”
This mindset — the skill of maintaining flexibility throughout execution of gameplay — helped the Mountain Hawks (12-10, 8-4 Patriot League) lock down a 73-61 victory against the Holy Cross Crusaders on Saturday afternoon in Stabler Arena.
Lehigh held the lead for 85% of the game and dominated defensively, posting 20 points off of 21 Holy Cross (14-9, 8-4 Patriot League) turnovers. They shot 33% from beyond the arc, making 10 3-pointers.
Micir said the Mountain Hawks sought to create chaos, putting pressure on the ball against a team that executes at a high level.
Sophomore forward Belle Bramer led the Mountain Hawks with 21 points, while junior forward Whitney Lind added 17 points. Junior guard Gracyn Lovette scored 13 points and got five steals.
Holy Cross’s senior forward Meg Cahalan led the Crusaders with 18 points. Senior guard Kaitlyn Flanagan followed with 14 points.
After both teams traded baskets, Lind shot a 3-pointer with three minutes left in the first quarter, bringing the score to 14-12 and giving Lehigh a lead they didn’t lose for the rest of the game.
Lind said the team played by one of their mottos — “share it and shoot it” — to get the ball in the hands of the open players and score points.
She said the Mountain Hawks’ success despite early-season adversity is rooted in the players supporting one another.
“It’s all 14 (of us), even on the bench, and so when we’re all together — the bench cheering for us, playing hard — it’s so easy to cheer for one another,” Lind said.
Lovette opened the second quarter with a three-pointer to extend Lehigh’s lead to 21-12. Another Holy Cross turnover led to a Bramer triple, capping off a 15-0 Lehigh run.
Bramer said her teammates drove the ball hard to get her good openings to score. She said they’ve attacked each game with the mindset that every possession matters, which pushed them to cause chaos and emphasize ball pressure.
That ball pressure helped hold the Crusaders to only eight points in the second quarter.
The Mountain Hawks held a 35-20 lead at the end of the first half, with 21 of their points coming from 3-pointers and 12 off turnovers.
Lehigh kept the defensive momentum through the third quarter, scoring 5 points off turnovers and keeping a double digit lead throughout.
Heading into the fourth quarter down 56-41, the Crusaders mounted a 18-8 run in the first eight minutes of the quarter, cutting the Lehigh lead to nine points with two minutes left in the game. But a 3-pointer from first-year guard Alana Reddy and two free throws from Lind sealed the Mountain Hawks’ victory.
Bramer said the team’s intensity and attack came from them looking at their play-time as a privilege.
“We’ve come to look at it as an opportunity, not adversity,” she said. “(We’re) really attacking each game as, ‘We get to play. We’re the ones who are healthy.’”
Micir said the team has relied on mental toughness and resilience to bring their best to each game.
Causing chaos and remembering to “flexecute,” she said, was at the core of the Mountain Hawks’ success amid a changing roster and a short bench.
“We take it day by day,” Micir said. “We don’t really know who’s practicing that day. We don’t really know who’s playing. But what we know is we’re gonna play Lehigh basketball.”
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