City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) &
Jeff Griffith (@jeff_griffith21)
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- There are a few ways to describe what Yale’s forwards did against Lehigh on Thursday night.

And none of them are particularly complimentary of the Mountain Hawks.

Led by defending Ivy League Player of the Year, the Yale frontcourt absolutely dominated its counterpart unit in every way, leading the way to a 79-67 Bulldogs win in a matchup of two preseason conference favorites.

There was the final rebound margin, which was 48-26 in favor of the visitors. There were the 12 blocks the Bulldogs collected. Lehigh’s forwards were 5-of-22 (22.7 percent) from the floor, and the team shot 3-of-18 (16.6 percent) from inside the arc in the first half.

It was certainly impressive, to everybody except perhaps Yale head coach James Jones, now in his 17th year at the helm of the program.

To him, it’s expected.

“I have a lot of confidence in these two gentlemen here and they do a great job at the basket,” said Jones, referencing seniors Justin Sears and Brandon Sherrod. “I’ve seen very few people that could keep them off the offensive glass.”

Undeniably the largest contributor to Yale’s physicality advantage was Sears, who flirted with a quadruple-double to help the program to a 3-0 start for the first time since the 1950-51 season. His final stat line: 16 points, seven assists, eight blocks, and eight rebounds.

It’s an achievement the Plainfield (N.J.) native has actually accomplished before, though perhaps not in the way most players dream it up.

“State championship my junior year, I had points, rebounds, blocks, turnovers,” he joked. “There you go. Not the way you want it.”

Those eight blocks marked a career-high for the 6-foot-8, 205-pound Sears, who came within one of Yale’s single-game program record.

“I do think our entire team needed to adjust to Justin Sears and his shot-blocking presence,” Lehigh head coach Brett Reed said. “It was very impressive. He changed the game, he erased our interior opportunities and also our drive-finishes.”

Sears was also a force on the offensive end; several of his 16 points came by way of his presence inside, but the 6-8 big man displayed and impressively smooth mid-range jump shot, and even knocked down a three-pointer.

Sherrod, a muscular 6-6 senior, added 10 pounds and seven rebounds, while 6-5 senior wing Nick Victor added nine points and 11 rebounds.

Other than the physically dominant bigs, Yale senior guard Jack Montague notched a career-high 21 points on 6-for-9 3-point shooting.

Lehigh was paced by junior guard Austin Price, who went for 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting.

While Sears, Sherrod and company flourished, it was a frustrating night for Lehigh star forward Tim Kempton. The 6-11 junior finished with 16 points but shot just 3-of-13 from the floor.

Quite a few of those misses were swatted away, including three of Kempton’s first four shot attempts. All rejections by Sears himself.

“I watched a little tape before we came out here and I saw that Kempton, he didn’t score really fast, he liked to face up the guy, size him up a little bit,” he said. “So I knew if Brandon and Sam (Downey) walled him up, they would give me a chance to come over and block off the weakside, and I think at least five of my blocks were off him.”

The Mountain Hawks’ other starting forward, Jesse Chuku, managed six points and six rebounds on 2-of-7 shooting in 31 minutes. Their only reserve big man, Justin Goldsborough, went 18 minutes without picking up a single rebound.

“It’s going to be very challenging for us to have our two ‘5’ men, Tim Kempton and Justin Goldsborough, to come away with three defensive rebounds total in over 45, close to 50 minutes,” Reed said.

The double-figure loss for Lehigh was the third straight of that nature, with the Mountain Hawks having lost by ten points or less to both Syracuse and Canisius in their opening games.

The slate won’t get any easier, and the talented Lehigh frontcourt will have to step up its game in order to hang with top-25 squads Virginia and Purdue that await on the schedule.

Before that, it’s a trip up to another one of the top programs in the Ivy League, at Columbia on Sunday. If Lehigh can’t turn it around quickly, an 0-6 start is a real possibility.

"It'll take maturity, it'll take leadership, but it'll also take improvements in some of these key areas," Reed said. "We have to do a better job of limiting our mistakes, whether it's defensive mistakes or offensive miscues."