City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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The first half of Lehigh’s season did not go as planned. There was loss after loss and even as the schedule became easier, the wins still didn’t happen for a team which returned a bevy of talent.

There was a lot of doubt about the Patriot League favorites and the NCAA Tournament run led by C.J. McCollum four years ago seemed even further away.

On Sunday afternoon in the Patriot League semifinal, however, there was no doubt. And Lehigh is now one win away from returning to the big dance after a 78-62 dismantling of American in a game Lehigh never trailed.

The win was the 11th in a row for the Mountain Hawks, who will host ninth-seeded Holy Cross for the Patriot League title and NCAA Tournament slot on Wednesday night at Stabler Arena. Lehigh is now 17-14 on the season, something that was hard to envision – at least from the outside – after the team went winless in November and started the season 2-10.

“Unfortunately we had a hangover, to be honest with you, from our challenging non-conference schedule in January,” said Lehigh coach Brett Reed. “There was a little bit of disbelief and there was a little bit of uncertainty. But the character of our guys was the most important factor. It would have been easy for them to divide and head in different directions. Instead, they took the lessons from behind them, grew from them and decided they were going to do this together.”

Tim Kempton, who was recently named the conference’s Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, was a big part of the Mountain Hawks’ offensive charge with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting, and he also grabbed 10 rebounds. Junior Austin Price had a team-high 18 points and was 7-for-11 from the floor.

Lehigh started the game on an 18-2 run and made its first six shots from the floor. The Mountain Hawks led by 18 points at the intermission thanks to a 17-for-30 (56.7 percent) shooting performance, which included a 7-for-14 showing from beyond the 3-point arc. They shot 56.9 percent for the game.

“A lot of aspects have gone into the way we’re playing basketball, but our emotional energy has been the key aspect, as well as everyone playing to their role,” Kempton said. “We have a great understanding of what every player should do night in and night out. I think we’re executing that very well.”

Every Lehigh starter scored at least (seven) points and point guard Kahron Ross gave out nine of the team’s 15 assists.

On the defensive side, American was held to an 39.0 field goal percentage. And while the Mountain Hawks were red-hot to start the game, the Eagles hit just one of their first 10 shots.

“I think we might have been a little too excited to be there,” said American senior Marko Vasic, who had six points and eight assists. “The way we run our offense is slow and methodical. We want to get the best shot we can, and everyone including me kind of got too excited and tried to score without the best shot possible. (Lehigh) really took advantage of that.”

American got 19 points from senior forward Jesse Reed, but the team was beaten by Lehigh, 33-29 on the glass. The sixth-seeded Eagles did beat No. 3 Boston on the road to get to the semifinals, but their season ends at 12-19.

Meanwhile, the Mountain Hawks will face the lowest seed they have all tournament in the title game. Ninth-seeded Holy Cross has pulled off road wins over Loyola, top-seeded Bucknell and Army on Sunday.

Lehigh did go 2-0 against Holy Cross in the regular season, winning each game by at least 15 points. But if Lehigh is the hottest team in the Patriot League, Holy Cross is close behind – and that matters in March.

“I could not care less about numbers in front of names of the schools. Both teams are hungry, Reed said.

“Obviously, Holy Cross is playing very good basketball to be in the championship game. Whatever happened beforehand doesn’t really matter. We have a single game we have to focus in on. …I know that it’s going to be an absolute war and we’re going to have to play great basketball to be crowned champions.”