Forum › Forum › Lehigh Sports › Lehigh Men’s Basketball › THE GAME: LU – LC
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February 21, 2009 at 1:03 am #52
GAME NOTES:
LU
http://www.lehighsports.com/assets/spor … 022209.pdfLC
http://goleopards.cstv.com/sports/m-bas … 09aaa.htmlPL STANDINGS AND WEEKEND OPPONENTS:
AU 10-1 home to HC
HC 9-2 @ AU
Navy 6-5 home to Army
LU 5-6 home to LC
CU 5-7 OOC game @ Longwood
Army 4-7 @ Navy
LC 3-8 @ LU
BU 3-9 home to Delaware (Bracket Buster)SAGARIN SCORE PREDICTOR:
AU – 7 1/2 over HC
Navy – 12 1/2 over Army
LU – 10 1/2 over LC
UD – 1 1/2 over BU
Longwood – 71/2 over CUBY THE NUMBERS (PL games only)
Stat LC LC
Scoring Offense 61.0 (6th) 63.7 (4th)
Scoring Defense 62.2 (4th) 70.1 (8th)
FT% .708 (4th) .773 (1st)
FG% .374 (8th) .395 (5th)
FG% .381 (2nd) .468 (8th)
3FG% .304 (7th) .299 (8th)
3FG Made/Game 5.27 (5th) 7.27 (1st)
3FG% Defense .328 (5th) .370 (7th)
Rebounding O. 38.4 (1st) 32.5 (7th)Top PL Scorers (ppg)
LU
Carr 14.7
Hall 14.5
LU
Willen 12.8
Brown 10.9Top 20 PL Rebounders
LU
Carrington 10.0
Anderson 5.7
Hall 4.8
LC
Willen 5.5So what can we expect out of the Leopards? An all-out effort, for sure. It’s LU-LC after all and the game will be featured live on ESPNU. On top of that, it’s Senior Day as the Hawks pay tribute to Matt Szalachowski, John Gourlay, and Phil Anderson. Why not rain on their parade, if a Leopard. After that, you might not think the 8-loss gang out of Easton has anything to play for. Wrong. A 4th place finish and a home game to start PL Championship play is not out of the question. Strange as it may sound, should the Leopards win out (home to Army and American after disposing of Lehigh – say it ain’t so) and end the season at 6-8, it could happen were LU, Army and Colgate to play along with the scheme and drop key games.
When the two teams first met, the Mountain Hawks prevailed, winning by three 60-57. In that contest, Lafayette does what they do most – but not the best – they tossed up 31 threes and hit on just eight (.258) – even worse than their overall .291 three point experience thus far in PL play (worse in the league). Will they oblige us again on Sunday with dreadful shooting? That would be nice but not to be counted on. Hit for 40% as they did in the AU Game earlier this year and it could be a long afternoon at Stabler. This team lives and dies with the three. Here’s a look at their biggest bombers in terms of 3FG Attempts during PL play this year:
Andrew Brown 17 for 71 (.239)
Jeff Karl 15 for 46 (.326)
Mike Gruner 10 for 42 (.238)
Ryan Willen 16 for 37 (.432)The last fellow is a guy to keep your eye on. The 6’8" Freshman forward has averaged 12.8 ppg and hit for double digits in 9 of his 11 PL contests to date. He had a season hit 20 on Wednesday against Bucknell. Oh yeah, he is the team’s leading rebounder at 5.5 per game.
Pay no attention to snow in the long-range forecast, get to Stabler to see the Mountain Hawks extend the Leopard’s road losing streak to 14 and make it 7 in a row over the Leopards at Stabler.
February 21, 2009 at 3:08 am #53Why move the game to Sunday at noon? I will be at the wrestling match as previously planned. Would have been there on Saturday. If the move is for TV, I hope we’re getting ‘big bucks’ :roll: due to the conflict now created with wrestling.
February 21, 2009 at 5:34 pm #56The move was indeed for TV: ESPNU is carrying the game nationally.
My weekend preview:
http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.co … e-and.html
I’m looking for Matt Sz to have a big game tomorrow.
February 21, 2009 at 11:43 pm #60On the eve of the big game, namely today, the PL didn’t do much to distinguish itself as Colgate dropped a 75-80 decision to Longwood (10-12 out of the Independent League sporting a 10-12 record…RPI 262) who had lost their previous two game to Texas Pan Am and Chicago State! Bucknell did them "one better" if you can believe it, losing 68-81 to the Blue Hens of Delaware (11-17 out of the Colonial League … 225 RPI) in their Bracket Buster game. The Hens, if the truth be told, went on a 23-0 run to close out the game. Not sure what to expect out of Bucknell as they host LU on Wednesday in a game of great significance to the Mountain Hawks.
In other action today, AU showed why they’re the class of the league downing HC by six, 56-50, to secure a strangle hold on first place. Garrison Carr pumped in 28 and went 6 for 9 from "deep." Derick Mercer chipped in with eleven. AU has won 8 in a row and 14 of their last 15.
February 22, 2009 at 7:49 pm #65Other than Keefer ,not a shooter on the team. All shotputters from 15′ out. D as usual pretty good but took Reed too long to get team to take away back cuts and pick and rolls. Lots of heart and effort but
no Hall. Very disappointingFebruary 22, 2009 at 9:02 pm #67Ugly game. Poorly officiated, not in anyone’s favor – just poor officiating. Carrington looks unstopable at times and like he’s never handled a basketball at others. Once again poor foul shooting.
LC’s center controlled the paint over the last 6 minutes and Brown hit five shots in a row at one time. Those two accounted for 45 points.
Hall never got into rhythm. Thought Small got too many minutes.
At this point in time, I’ll be happy if we win one playoff game.
February 22, 2009 at 10:09 pm #68To what has been said above, you can add:
1. Uncanny shooting from Leopards Brown and Mintz going a combined 20 for 30 and scoring 47 of the team’s 68 points.
2. Leaving it at the line. LU was 12 for 23 from the charity stripe missing the front end of at least three – maybe four – one and ones.
3. Early foul trouble (again!) for Zahir Carrington. We need him to play more than 25 minutes.
4. Dug an early hole, down 2-9 at the first media timeout. Understandably, Reed played his three seniors to start the game and to say we look disjointed as a team is an understatement. There was absolutely no rhythm to their play. Horrendous 1 for 7 shooting from beyond the arc in the first half. Lucky to be down only 6 at intermission.
5. We won’t be successful as a team with a line score like this from our "go-to" guy, Marquis Hall:
FGs: 4 for 10 (0 for 6 from deep)
FTs: 4 for 6
Pts: 12
A: 3
TO: 36. Solid 20-8 run by the Mountain Hawks during a five minute stretch in the 2nd half to convert a 10 point deficit into a 2 point lead. Spirited team play and good ball movement were on display (finally!). It was fun to watch – and good to see – the court leadership of senior Tri-Captain Matt Szalachowski in this five minute span as he hit a three pointer and dished out three assists while playing solid "D" in what may be his last game at Stabler.
7. Notable performances by Buchberger (what else is new and when did he miss his last FT?) and Small each playing a well-deserved 32-33 minutes and each pulling down 4 boards.
8. The final score was a close as the stats would have you believe.
FG%
LU 41.4
LC 44.13FG%
LU 33.3
LC 27.39. There’s no telling who will claim the 4th spot in the final PL Standings. More on the various scenarios in later postings.
February 23, 2009 at 12:03 am #7052% FT shooting, 52% FT shooting, 52% FT shooting…
I mean these are COLLEGE basketball players. You almost have to try to miss that many FT’s! Either no focus or no legs. With the bad shoot streaks, I go for the latter. This team seems tired. And when you’re tired the shooting goes first.
February 23, 2009 at 2:52 pm #73Thoughts:
1) Was Carrington hurt or in foul trouble? He played 25 minutes and came off the bench. I understand Gourlay got 4 minutes to start his last game at Stabler but 25 minutes out of 40 is still not enough for whom I consider to be the best player on the Mountain Hawks.
2) As others have noted, FT’s were killer. You can’t clunk FT’s at that rate and hope to beat your archrival. You know it’s going to be a close game.
3) How on earth do you allow Brown and Mintz to score that many points? Allowing one to score 10 points more than his average is not good, but at least you can possibly overcome it. Allowing BOTH to do it is a death sentence. Once again, playing down to the level of competition smacked us in the butt. If I’m coach Reed, I’m doubling up on wind sprints and defensive drills all week.
4) Has Lehigh ever won a game on ESPNU? I know the Lady Hawks lost against American earlier this year, so that puts Lehigh (I think) at 0-2 for the year.
February 23, 2009 at 7:21 pm #74Watched the game on ESPNU. Observations:
The crowd was MUCH smaller than typical for such a match-up, but then, we did have a wrestling match going on at the same time.
John Feinstein is VERY good as a color man. I can’t even listen to Dick Vitale anymore. The game was not intended to be about him.
Fran O’Hanlon is a smooth, cool-cookie type of coach. Lafayette should keep him at all costs.
The officiating WAS pretty bad, but at least Jeff Plunkett wasn’t there with his usual calls against Lehigh.
The Lehigh team played really sloppy ball. Don’t expect much success from this point forward.
Stabler Arena does NOT look very good on TV. It really is an odd building.
I STILL think Lafayette Sucks!
February 25, 2009 at 6:03 am #83Maybe it’s time to look ahead. I was disappointed that there was no spark from most of the team members. The way they played, the underclassmen probably would have done a better job. Good luck against Bucknell. Lafayette saw the lack of passion and pounced.
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