23 January, 2007
by Elliot Smilowitz
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1st |
2nd |
Final |
| Lehigh (9-13, 4-2 Patriot) |
21 |
23 |
44 |
| Bucknell (11-8, 5-1 Patriot) |
37 |
25 |
62 |
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Bucknell established themselves as the Holy Cross’ main competition in the Patriot League, downing Lehigh 62-44 in the battle of the teams that came in with one loss. The Bison won on the strength of strong interior play, with 15 points apiece from Chris McNaughton and Donald Brown.
The game was even for a few minutes, but Bucknell exploded with a 14-2 run to take a 23-12 lead early in the game. Lehigh struggled to score all half, shooting 3-of-11 from the three-point line, while the Bison shot 57.1 percent from the floor in the first period.
Lehigh came out of halftime strong, scoring 7 straight points in the first 2:26 of the half to climb within 9. However, Bucknell quickly responded with 8 unanswered points, highlighted by a three-point play by Brown and a three-pointer by Abe Badmus. Lehigh would never again come within single digits.
Lehigh needed to use their perimeter game to stay in it; instead, their big outside scorers had horrible games. Jose Olivero scored 9 points on 4-of-15 shooting, and Kyle Neptune had 3 points on 1-of-12 shooting. The one Mountain Hawk who did step up was freshman point guard Marquis Hall, who hit 4 three-pointers and scored a game-high 18 points. From here, Lehigh will head to Holy Cross Friday night in a game televised on ESPNU, while Bucknell will host Army Saturday night.
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| Keys to the Game |
| Key sequence |
With 15:19 to go in the first half, Olivero hit a lay-up to give Lehigh a 10-9 lead. Bucknell responded with 7 consecutive frontcourt points, getting 1 point from Brown, 3 from Darren Mastropaolo, and amazingly, a three-pointer from McNaughton, his second of the year. Before Lehigh could adjust, the Bison were off to the races.
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| Key sign it was over |
Lehigh was within 13 points with 8:57 to go when Brown made a three-point play, off an assist by Mastropaolo. After Neptune missed a three-pointer, Mastropaolo grabbed the rebound and again had an assist, passing the ball to Brown for a lay-up that made the score 53-35 and sent the Mountain Hawks scurrying to a timeout.
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| Key performance |
McNaughton had a monster game, scoring 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor and grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds.
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| Key statistic |
Bucknell shot 12-of-21 from the floor in their big first half, giving them a lead that they could ride out.
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| Notes |
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Bucknell’s struggling long-range game (34.1 percent from the arc on the year) had a good night. The Bison shot 8-for-18 on three-pointers.
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Bucknell outrebounded Lehigh 37-30.
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The Bison had 14 assists to 8 turnovers; Lehigh had 8 assists to 9 turnovers.
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Despite his horrid shooting night, Neptune put up a good defensive line, finishing with 6 rebounds, 3 blocks and a steal.
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