Mountain Hawks Top Lafayette, 74-59 With his team's lead down to one point with just over 10 minutes remaining, Lehigh senior Zahir Carrington (6'7''-F) took over down the stretch to lead the top-seeded Mountain Hawks to a 74-59 victory over No. 3 Lafayette to win the 2010 Patriot League Men's Basketball Championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Tournament. The Mountain Hawks win their second Patriot League title, and first since 2004. They advance to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship for the first time since that season, and fourth overall. Lehigh will find it out its NCAA opponent and destination when the brackets are announced on Sunday at 6 p.m. on CBS. 'I'm so proud of our players,' said Lehigh Head Coach Brett Reed . 'They fought all year with dedication, commitment, and a family atmosphere, and I thought our senior leadership throughout the course of the year was tremendous.' Carrington was named Patriot League Tournament Most Valuable Player after posting his second-consecutive double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, and also blocking four shots in the final nine minutes. CJ McCollum (6'3''-G) scored 20 points for Lehigh to lead all scorers, while Dave Buchberger (6'4''-G) had 13 and Michael Ojo (6'5''-G) scored 11. Ryan Willen (6'8''-F) posted a double-double for Lafayette with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Jeff Kari (6'2''-G) added 10 for Lafayette. Lehigh (22-10) led from start to finish, scoring the first six points on three-pointers by McCollum and Buchberger just over a minute in. Lehigh pushed the lead to seven at 18-11, but Lafayette came back with six straight points to cut it to one with 9:01 left in the half. Lehigh scored five points to push the lead back to six, setting a tone of answering Lafayette rallies that carried throughout the contest. Lehigh went up by as many as eight points before taking a 35-29 lead at the break. McCollum scored 16 of his 20 points in the first half. Lafayette (19-13) had multiple runs in the first part of the second half, but was never able to tie or take the lead. After Lehigh pushed its lead to nine at 44-35 with 15:08 left, the Leopards came back with seven straight points to get within two on a Jeff Kari layup with 13:27 left. Lehigh came right back with seven consecutive points of its own, getting the lead back to 51-42 with 12:14 to go. The Leopards made their final push to answer, scoring eight straight points and coming back within one at 51-50 on a Jim Mower (6'3''-G) three-pointer with 10:43 to go. From that point, Carrington and the Mountain Hawks took over with a 23-9 stretch to close the game. Buchberger hit a three to push the lead to four, and Carrington and Ojo hit consecutive shots for a 58-52 lead with 7:48 to go. With Lehigh up 56-52, Carrington blocked two shots before Ojo's layup. Ojo and Carrington again answered a Lafayette basket with back-to-back layups for a 62-54 lead with 6:09 to go. Lafayette scored the next four points to get back within 62-58 with 5:16 left, and had a chance to get the deficit closer on its next possession. But Carrington stepped up with a big rebound in traffic, and threw an outlet pass to Buchberger for a dunk and a 64-58 lead with 4:19 left. Carrington punctuated the win with back-to-back thunderous dunks to give Lehigh its biggest lead of the game at 68-58 with 2:08 left. The lead was at double digits the rest of the way, with Lehigh closing on a 12-1 run to finish the game. 'I just gave everything I got out there, and no offense to those guys but they just didn't want it as bad as we did,' said Carrington. Lehigh's defense held Lafayette's potent three-point shooting attack to a 3-for-23 clip, and kept the Leopards without a field goal for nearly the final six minutes of the game. Lehigh shot 27-of-55 for the game, making 15-of-26 after halftime. Lehigh connected on 7-of-19 three-pointers and 13-of-17 free throws in the game. The Mountain Hawks held a 40-33 advantage on the boards, led by the 10 from Carrington as well as seven for McCollum. Marquis Hall (6'0''-G) had seven ofthe team's 18 assists. Lafayette made 24-of-66 shots for the game, making 21-of-43 from inside the arc to stay in the game despite the tough night from three-point range. Six Leopards scored five points or more, including Willen, Kari, Mower (9), Ben Wheeler (6'3''-G) (7), Jared Mintz (6'8''-F) (6) and Michael Gruner (6'2''-G) (5). Lafayette only turned it over 10 times while forcing 14 Lehigh turnovers. Darion Benbow (6'7''-F) led the Leopards with seven rebounds, while Wheeler had a team-high four assists. The Leopards made 8-of-9 foul shots. Lehigh was in its second Patriot League Championship and first since 2004, while Lafayette played its fourth title game (2-2) and first since 2000. Carrington was named the Patriot League Tournament MVP, and five other players made the All-Tournament Team. Hall and McCollum were named to the squad from Lehigh, while Mower and Willen made it from Lafayette. American sophomore Stephen Lumpkins (6'8''-F) was the remaining All-Tournament selection. Courtesy of Patriot League Patriot League Tournament Final: Lafayette - Lehigh 59-74 Patriot League Tournament Semifinals: Lafayette - Holy Cross 66-63 Lehigh - American 79-57 Patriot League All-Tournament MVP: Zahir Carrington of Lehigh Patriot League All-Tournament Team CJ McCollum of Lehigh Zahir Carrington of Lehigh Marquis Hall of Lehigh Jim Mower of Lafayette Ryan Willen of Lafayette Stephen Lumpkins of American
All-Patriot League 1st Team Chris Harris (6'2''-G-86) of Navy CJ McCollum of Lehigh Jared Mintz of Lafayette Vlad Moldoveanu (6'9''-F-88) of American Kyle Roemer (6'3''-G/F-85) of Colgate All-Patriot League 2nd Team Zahir Carrington of Lehigh Marquis Hall of Lehigh Mike Muscala (6'10''-F/C) of Bucknell Andrew Keister (6'9''-F) of Holy Cross Ryan Willen of Lafayette Patriot League All-Rookie Team Bryson Johnson (6'1''-G-90) of Bucknell Gabe Knutson (6'9''-F) of Lehigh CJ McCollum of Lehigh Mike Muscala of Bucknell Mitch Rolls (6'0''-G) of Colgate Joe Willman (6'6''-F-91) of Bucknell All-Patriot League Player of the Year: CJ McCollum of Lehigh All-Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year: Bryan Cohen of Bucknell All-Patriot League Rookie of the Year: CJ McCollum of Lehigh All-Patriot League Coach of the Year: Fran O'Hanlon of Lafayette | |||||||||||||||||||||
Men
Women
Subscribe
Login
