City of Basketball Love

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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Both times Lehigh and Navy met this season in the home-and-home Patriot League slate provided exciting finishes and games decided by five points or less, with each team taking one of the two matchups.

Although it appeared early in the second half that Lehigh was poised to run away with a victory, Thursday night’s matchup in the Patriot League quarterfinals ended up being yet another tightly-contest showdown.

The second-seeded Mountain Hawks withstood a dominant second half by Navy that shattered a 19-point Lehigh lead and well a dominant performance down the stretch by Tim Kempton--who was honored prior to the game for winning his second-straight Patriot League Player of the Year award--into the conference semifinals with a 65-63 victory over the no. 7 Midshipmen.

“For us tonight, it took us building a major lead in order to be able to pull out this game,” said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. “We rode emotional energy, I thought this atmosphere was teriffic, I thought our student was fantastic, and they really fueled us. When things got a little sticky and tight, and we weren’t playing our best basketball, we were able to kind of draw from that energy.”

For Reed’s team, losing is something they haven’t experienced since January. Now winners of their last ten, the Mountain Hawks--who were picked 1st in the Patriot League preseason poll--are the conference’s hottest team, and have gone from starting 0-7 to fighting for a spot in the NCAA tournament.

And when they went up 42-23 in the beginning of the 2nd half, it looked like they were well on their way to that tenth straight victory.

Navy obviously had other plans. The Midshipmen used an ugly eight-minute Lehigh scoreless stretch in the second half to go from down 19 to up two.

“I never expected this game to go easy,” said Reed. “Even up 19, I didn’t expect that to be the game. I knew they would show too much heart, that’s the kind of kids that they are. Fortunately for us, we were able to stay strong and stay tough in that pressure and key situation, and it says a lot about our guys that we’re able to forth a win in that type of environment and that type of setting when it would have been very easy to hang their heads.”

Following that dry spell, the Mountain Hawks had Kempton on their side to regain the momentum. After going down 48-46, Kempton took over around the rim, earning a big three-point play to light up the crowd.

“That basket, kind of not solidified us but put us in a position to win the game,” he said. “Our offense was stagnant throughout that whole stretch, and Kyle made a great unselfish play which put me in the right position, but that’s how we’ve been playing all year, so we can’t turn away from that now.”

Kempton would gain the next nine Lehigh points, but despite his efforts, the score was still tied at 55 entering the final three minutes of play.

Although Navy would be the first to break that tie, it was Kempton again who came up with the game’s biggest play, driving to the hole, scoring, drawing a blocking foul, and completing the three-point play to put Lehigh up 60-57 with just 36 seconds left.

That basket was enough to finish things off for Lehigh, who closed out Navy with the necessary free throws down the stretch.

Although highlighted by the man who put the ball in the basket, that critical play was an all-around team effort from three players who have had a huge impact on Lehigh’s entire season.

“When it came time to win, the ball moved quickly from player to player and we got the best shot, and that’s probably best illustrated by Kahron Ross taking it hard to his left, throwing it back to Austin Price, there was a hard close-out, he could have forced a shot, instead he threw a pinpoint pass to Tim Kempton, who ended up coming in for a finish,” Reed said. “Three players who have experience for us, three players all touching the ball, three players making the play together.”

In the first half, Lehigh started slow but finished fast; the Mountain Hawks would trail 7-2 in the early-going on just 2-of-9 shooting, but after a couple of threes by Devon Carter and Kyle Leufroy, things started going in the right direction.

The steady hand throughout the first frame and the entire contest was, of course, Kempton. He nearly reached a double-double in the first twenty minutes, scoring 8 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and helping Lehigh finish the half strong to enter the break up 35-23.

It didn’t take Kempton long to reach that double-double mark; his tenth point gave Lehigh a commanding 40-23 lead just under three minutes into the second half. The junior finished the night with a game-high 22 points and 17 rebounds. Kyle Leufroy also chipped in 18 of his own.

As for the Midshipmen, sophomore Shawn Anderson led the way in the losing effort with 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting.

“That’s all energy, I think I had eleven in the first half and only six in the second half which is awful, but it’s just energy,” Kempton added. “I was attacking the glass hard both on the offensive end and the defensive end and no guards were stealing my rebounds, but it’s all energy plays and hopefully I can continue to do that through these playoffs.”

Now thanks to his performance, the Mountain Hawks are on their way to a conference semifinal and are just two wins away from a spot in the NCAA tournament.

For now, though, the focus is on Sunday’s matchup with the American Eagles, who also notched a win over Boston U on Thursday night.

And despite top-seed Bucknell losing to Holy Cross and therefore making Lehigh the new favorites to clinch the Patriot League’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, Reed and his team know they can’t get ahead of themselves.

“The only thing that really matters is that we won this game and that we win our next game,” he said. “We wouldn’t play Bucknell or Holy Cross until our third game. Unless we win one, we don’t play two. Unless we play two, we don’t play three.”