Lehigh jumped out on Colgate from the opening tap by scoring the first 9 points of the game and led wire to wire in a 60-45 victory on Saturday night in front of a fired up Stabler Arena crowd, pushing the Mountain Hawks to a 3-0 record in league play. The old adage is that “defense wins championships” and Lehigh rolled out another championship effort on the defensive end in holding Colgate to 45 points. Tonight marked the 5th straight game that Lehigh has held opponents under the 60 point marker, which is truly remarkaable. Coincidence aside, this team has stepped up the defensive effort post the injury to CJ, which is the best way you help try to make-up for losing a 2,000+ point scorer, allow less points.
It has been a true team effort on the defensive end as well, and tonight the highlight was holding Colgate’s leading scorer Burnatowski to 2 points on 1 for 13 shooting. Lehigh racked up 11 steals on defense, led by the Maestro Man Mackey McKnight who had 5 big swipes and put pressure on the ‘Gate guards all night long. In addition to the steals, Lehigh put up 6 blocked shots, including 3 by the long athletic guard BJ Bailey and 2 by the surging freshman big man Justin Goldsborough.
Offensively, Lehigh was again lead by their upperclassman, and it started with the Holden Greiner early in the game. Holden was crucial early in the game in building up a big Lehigh lead, and ended up with a double double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. While Holden got his early, Mackey was solid throughout the game and ended with a Lehigh high 14 points on 5 for 10 shooting from the field. Mackey once again was the engine that lead this Mountain Hawks squad, as he scored in a variety of ways including deep 3-balls, driving layups, and some nice mid-range jumpers. Mackey is playing at a different level right now than he has in his first two years when he started and excelled on this Lehigh team. The Maestro Man again stuffed the stat sheet with get this, 14 points/7 rebounds/5 steals/4 assists. Joining Holden and Mackey in double figures was junior guard Anthony D’Orazio, another Mountain Hawk who is also playing his best basketball of his career in Bethlehem. D’Orazio finished the evening with 12 points and a big 8 rebounds from the guard spot .
Lehigh runs their record to 3-0 for the first time in 7 years, and this win sets up an early season showdown with the other undefeated team in the league, the Bucknell Bison. Got plans for Wednesday night at 6:00 PM Eastern Time, better cancel them and tune into the CBS Sports Network to watch this battle for first place in the league.
