Quarter-final Game: Navy

[LU65Participant]

Game Notes

LU’s

http://www.lehighsports.com/custompages/Game%20Notes/Men‘s%20Basketball/2015-16/30%20-%20Lehigh%20vs.%20Navy%20Notes%20030316.pdf

Navy’s

We await

KenPom

Navy (19-13, 9-9) ranked 209th
@
LU (15-14, 13-5) ranked 166th
LU wins by 6 (70 – 64)

HOLY CROSS (11-19, 5-13) ranked 283rd
@
BUCKNELL (17-12, 14-4) ranked 167th
Bucknell wins by 13 (78- 65)

Commentary

Two weeks ago – on Tuesday, Feb. 17th to be exact – the following headline appeared on the Navy Sports Men’s Basketball website to describe what just happened to their Midshipmen moments ago:

“Lehigh Uses Long-Range Shooting to Slip Past Navy”
http://www.navysports.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/021716aaa.html

Yes, KR and JC did connect on 10 of 11 “3’s” to lead the LU 3-point parade which saw the team hit 60.9% from long range to take down the Midshipmen 77-73. Awesome, right? Well, not so quick. Without that barrage of points from beyond the arc and, for that matter, the 10 extra free throw attempts we received (29 to 19), we might very well have walked away losers that night. Navy out-scored us in the paint (36 to 12); out-scored us on the fast-break (0 to 9); led in 2nd chance points (12 to 6); had the lead at more moments of the game than did we; and, like so many other times this year, got solid play (16 point/8 boards) from the recently announced PL Defensive Player of the Year, Will Kelly.

Coach Reed summed up the game this way, “We struggled at times and we didn’t do a great job defending all night. Fortunately for us, we had players such as Jesse Chuku and Kahron Ross utilizing that three-point line. Shooting over 60 percent from the three-point line and getting 14 made three-point field goals was the story of the game. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to keep pace. Kahron has been terrific for us. He was almost flawless. That was an aggressive defense he was going against and he was able to find his moments and find his opportunities. One of them was a great pass from Tim Kempton out of a double team and another came from a quick skip to him. He was a recipient of team basketball, but I’m proud of him for stepping up in the moment when we really needed it. It was a sticky time, but he carried us and really pushed us through.”

Coming off a win in the League’s “play-in” game, I expect Navy to be “feeling it” and give us everything we can handle. It’s always scary entering the game to think we might have to rely on the long-range shot to win – as we did two weeks ago – but it just may be that way again tomorrow night. What fun!

Who will be attending?

[toddcuddParticipant]

Those numbers are a bit scary; i hear that little voice saying “live by the 3,…”. I’m optimistic though. Our game has been really nicely balanced of late. TK has been great, and we seem to be adjusting well to what the defense tries to take away.
Will Kelly is obviously a very good defender down deep. But I have seen some things that make me really happy in terms of interior passing. Guards have hit TK in good spots, and TK has found the open man when defenses collapse. Getting to the line is something I really like to see, and keeps the D honest. I’d like to see a repeat of that part of the last matchup – and it’s less prone to “cold streaks”.

[travismParticipant]

This game has me nervous. Will Kelly usually plays well vs us. I don’t like their pg, he extends his arm and pushes off every time. Got called for it once or twice last time here. I will be sitting on the floor seats for this game. Can’t wait

[toddcuddParticipant]

Agreed, travis. Feels like a trap game, when we’re feeling good. Dunbar is really good – even if he pushes off! The paint numbers are really worrisome. This old guy puts a lot (too much?) into paint play. And Kelly can really mess up an inside game if we don’t move the ball well.
If we shoot like we have been shooting, it’s not a problem. If we don’t – we have to be prepared with plan B. O-boards, turnovers, and paint points.

[Bison137Participant]

Navy is a really bad outside shooting team: 29% on threes in PL play and 64% on FT’s, both dead last in the PL. If they shoot like that, LU should have no problems. However occasionally they get hot – and then they could be dangerous. Zach Fong, who is a one-dimensional 3-point shooter, was having a very poor shooting year. But suddenly he has hit 8-14 on threes in the past two games and seen his minutes increase dramatically. He could be a factor tomorrow.

[lehigh90Participant]

Can we get 1500 in the building tonight? Hoping students turn out. Loyola drew 400 and Navy in the 700’s in play in.

If you want to get pumped up check out the Campus Insiders PL Network front page today, with Brett Reed highlighting the 25th PL Championship Game between MM and CJM. Good stuff.

[lehigh90Participant]

Rough start, but now rolling, up 19 early second. Navy looks pretty bad shooting the basketball.

[lehigh90Participant]

Looks like one of our bigger crowds.

[lehigh90Participant]

Spoke to soon, Navy cuts to under 10. Come on.

[sundayamqbParticipant]

Good finish.

[lehigh90Participant]

TK was a beast. Scary game. Down goes Bucky!!

[lfnadminKeymaster]

Time Kempton was always good. He became a star tonight.

What an incredible performance – forget the double-double, forget the early physical play, he got the game kickstarted and kind of was the machine that kept things going by grabbing the rebounds limiting Navy to one shot.

When Navy went ahead, he kicked it into a different gear – getting rebounds simply because “he wanted it more” (the announcers’ words, not mine), and just racking up critical baskets to help build the slender lead. Best of all he did it without succumbing to some of his bad instincts we saw earlier in the year – getting in foul trouble, getting pushed around by really good post defenders. It was a war underneath with him, against a very game Navy team that battled extremely hard – and he delivered.

Folks who watched the game got to see something special. I think we’re going to be circling this game as one of the greats. It wasn’t only Kempton – AP’s pass to Kempton to set up the go-ahead bucket was a thing of beauty, as was KLF, I mean Leufroy’s spark offensively, Ross’ ballhandling. But this was the game I think that Kempton went from really good to great.

Let’s now hope Sunday’s game will see more of the same sort of thing. I can’t wait to see what Kempton does for an encore.

[buckParticipant]

The big white boy can play. His father was an NBA journeyman and maybe this kid can cash some checks as an end of bench type. Navy just might have the worst coach in all of college.

[TMHParticipant]

Interestingly, AP went 1 for 11 with 2 points last night and we still won. There goes my theory that we win when AP score double digits although I prefer that we don’t test that theory ever again.

[lehigh90Participant]

Something else interesting was the defenses that had success last night. HC ran pretty much all 1-3-1 vs. Bucknell from what I saw after Lehigh game, and were successful in getting them out of rhythm. And, Navy ran something similar with their pressure in backcourt and up top and it frustrated Lehigh for a long stretch. I thought Navy coaching actually got them back into that game, when they looked dead. Looked like a 1-3-1, 3/4 court trap, then sometimes it looked more of a 1-2-2 look. Hard to get into your sets with that pressure getting ball over midcourt. I expect to see HC continue to run it, as they have had success now in 2 road games with it. Need to be ready for that, and you know Army will have seen us struggle vs. that 1-3-1 soft trap. Lehigh, for the last several years, has struggled with pressure, even token pressure. Then, we went zone, and Navy struggled at the end of the game. So, expect a lot of mixing and matching of defenses in semis and final.

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