Tuesday, December 22
Stabler Arena
7:00 pm
Lehigh University
2-9
62
vs
75
Stony Brook
7-4
1
2
F
Stony Brook
29
46
75
Lehigh
35
27
62
Mountain Hawks run out of gas vs. Stony Brook, 75-62
12/22/2015 9:53:00 PM | Men's Basketball
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Lehigh men's basketball team led for almost 24 minutes of the game, but Stony Brook used a second-half surge to take, and extend, a lead as the Mountain Hawks fell, 75-62 on Tuesday evening in Stabler Arena. Freshman Kyle Leufroy led Lehigh with 13 points and senior Jesse Chuku scored 11. The game marked the nonleague finale as the Mountain Hawks now look ahead to the Patriot League opener vs. Army West Point next Wednesday, Dec. 30 in Stabler Arena.
Leufroy scored 10 of his 13 points in the first half, finishing the evening shooting 3-of-5 from the field and 6-of-7 from the free throw line. He also added a career-high five assists along with two steals. The Mountain Hawks tallied a season-high 14 steals as five different players recorded multiple steals. Carson Puriefoy scored 25 points for the Seawolves while Jameel Warney added 22 points and 10 rebounds.
"The difference in the two halves was Puriefoy and Warning, who just took over," said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. "They led the charge for Stony Brook. I was disappointed that some of the things we were trying to emphasize in the first half kind of dissipated and fell apart in the second. We got a little bit on our heels. We started the game on our heels. Stony Brook threw a couple punches, I thought we responded fairly well, but then they just wore us down. We started to see some slippage of what we were trying to accomplish and started to have some leakage as far as what our defense was trying to do."
Senior Justin Goldsborough scored nine points to go with two blocks and two steals while senior John Ross Glover and junior Austin Price scored eight apiece.
Scoring was slow in the early going as Stony Brook opened the scoring just over two minutes into the game. The teams went back and forth through most of the opening minutes with neither team leading by more than three points until 13:13 was left in the first half.
Trailing 7-6, Lehigh responded with five straight points as a Goldsborough layup followed by a Glover three-pointer gave the Mountain Hawks an 11-7 advantage.
Lehigh's lead reached five at 14-9 following a Chuku three-pointer with 10:41 on the clock. The Mountain Hawks' lead reached five over the ensuing minutes until the Seawolves used a mini 5-0 run to even the score. A Warney dunk tied the score at 22 with 4:24 on the clock.
Leading 25-24, the Mountain Hawks staged an 8-2 run which began with a three-point play from Leufroy and also included three Goldsborough points as a Goldsborough free throw gave the Mountain Hawks their largest first-half lead at 33-26 with 1:21 remaining in the stanza.
Leufroy extended Lehigh's lead to nine behind two free throws before a Stony Brook three-pointer trimmed Lehigh's lead to 35-29 at the half.
Leufroy led the Mountain Hawks with 10 first-half points while Goldsborough and Chuku had seven points apiece. Lehigh tallied nine first-half steals.
Stony Brook began the second half with four straight points, but the Mountain Hawks came back with four in a row. Eventually, the Seawolves pulling within one, 43-42, with 14:27 left in the second half.
Stony Brook then took its first lead since the score was 7-6 as a Warney layup gave the Seawolves a 46-45 advantage with 11:24 on the clock. However, a pair of Leufroy free throws and a Price fast break layup helped Lehigh quickly regain a 49-46 lead with 10:39 remaining.
From there, Stony Brook slowly increased its lead, reaching five at 60-55 with 5:44 on the clock. Neither team scored for the next 1:37 as Lehigh hung around. The Seawolves erased much doubt by scoring the next four points to extend its run to 7-0, giving them a 64-55 advantage with 3:24 remaining. Stony Brook continued to knock down its shots down the stretch, pulling away, 75-62.
Lehigh shot 47 percent for the game (23-of-49) and 33 percent from three-point range (5-of-15). Stony Brook shot 58 percent in the second half (18-of-31) to finish at 46 percent for the game (29-of-63). The Seawolves held a dominant 42-23 edge in rebounds.
"The task was ahead of us to win these games. We fell short of that accomplishment," said Reed. "But having the chance to refresh and be with family, flush this as we enter into our second season (Patriot League play), will be valuable as well."
After a break for the holiday, the Mountain Hawks return to action next Wednesday (Dec. 30) when they open Patriot League play vs. Army West Point. Opening tipoff in Stabler Arena is set for 7 p.m.
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Team Stats
SBU
LEHIGH
FG%
.460
.469
3FG%
.409
.333
FT%
.615
.733
RB
42
23
TO
17
16
STL
9
14
Game Leaders
Pts
13
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
6
Pts
11
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
8
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
G/F
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
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