After beating AU to become the Patriot League champion the Lehigh Mountain Hawks lost to Florida A&M, 72-57, in the NCAA tournament opening round Tuesday.
The Rattlers, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champions, were led by guard Terence Woods, the nation's best three-point shooter, who overcame a deep thigh bruise to score a game-high 21 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the floor.
"We knew we could get back in it if we played some defense, but Woods started making threes," said Lehigh senior guard Austen Rowland after the loss, according to ESPN.
Rowland and Jose Olivero, the heroes of Lehigh's PL championship win a week ago, were unable to solve the Rattlers' defense, scoring a combined 14 points on 5-of-22 shooting.
The loss meant that the only league not represented in the field of 64 is the Patriot League, the first time that has happened since the NCAA re-adopted the opening round three years ago.
It ended a streak of recent strong PL showings, highlighted by Holy Cross' 70-59 loss to Kansas two years ago and its 72-68 near-miss last year to Marquette, a team that would advance all the way to the Final Four.
Lehigh defeated the Eagles last Sunday, 59-57, on a last second shot by Olivero. Had AU won, the Eagles would have made their first appearance in the NCAA tournament in school history.
In the Women's NCAA tournament, the Tennessee Volunteers beat PL champion Colgate Raiders, 77-54, while holding senior guard Malissa Burke to 10 points.
