Reply To: Re: NAVY – Game 30 (PL Quarterfinals)….Wed, March 2, 2011

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball NAVY – Game 30 (PL Quarterfinals)….Wed, March 2, 2011 Reply To: Re: NAVY – Game 30 (PL Quarterfinals)….Wed, March 2, 2011

#3358

LU65
Participant

Good read, LFN. Thanks.

Will you be at the game tonight? Where seated?

My thoughts:

Fueled by runs of 15-2 in Game 1 and 15-1 in Game 2, Lehigh swept it series against Navy this year. Take away the runs or mitigate them in the slightest and the games were near toss-ups. That’s exactly what I expect tonight’s game to be.
The keys to victories then and again tonight – if it were to happen – will be LU’s rebounding strength (105 to 64 in Games I and II) and its ability to score in the paint (72 to 46 in Games I and II). The concerns any Lehigh fan would who watched Game I and II would be our turnovers and ability to limit the effectiveness of the Mid’s three-point shooters. First, the turnovers. In our earlier games, the ball-hawking guards of Navy (#1 team in steals @ 8.9/game) forced 42 miscues resulting in 33 Navy points. We, on the other hand forced far fewer turnovers which yielded but 15 points. When it comes to 3’s, we were indeed fortunate that Navy connected on just 18 of 54 attempts over two games. It could have been worse. The Mids take more 3’s than anyone else in the league (25.4/game) but make the fewest in percentage terms @ .298. All we can do is hope the numbers don’t change tonight. Should Sugars (.372 FG%) or Avila (.366 FG%) get hot, all bets are off.

Finally, I like what I have seen out of McKnight over the past two games (26 points on 9 for 20 shooting) while picking up the slack for an ailing (flu) Ojo. Should Navy decide to double-up on CJ (why wouldn’t they) and should Michael return to form tonight, having McKnight as a newfound outlet for scoring the ball from outside may be just what the doctor ordered should the middle be clogged or should Knutson/Greiner/Hamilton find the going rough. It’s worth watching.