Despite confidence-building wins at DePaul and Brown over the break, the AU men’s basketball team was unable to steal its first Patriot League game away from Lehigh as they fell to the Mountain Hawks 78-67 on Saturday evening.
| Men's Basketball | |
| AU | 67 |
| Lehigh | 78 |
| Washington, D.C. |
The Eagles dug themselves into an 18 point hole in the first half, shooting only 25 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes. However, they came out of halftime and cut the Mountain Hawks’ lead to six with less than two minutes to play. Like many times this season, the effort proved to be too little too late.
AU, now 3-13 on the season, was led by junior forward Vlad Moldoveanu, who finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds to give him his first double-double as an Eagle. Junior guard Nick Hendra also had a solid game with 13 points and six boards. For the Mountain Hawks, forward Zahir Carrington played a major role in the victory with 18 points and 12 rebounds.
The game featured two teams moving in opposite directions. Lehigh came in with a five game winning streak, while the Eagles have lost four of their past five games. As the game progressed, there was little evidence that the trends would change. Lehigh opened the game with an 8-2 run on a series of easy layups allowed by sloppy defense. AU turnovers and missed free throws allowed the Mountain Hawks’ lead to quickly balloon to double digits.
It was one of the worst halves for AU all season. Only four Eagles managed to score, though Moldoveanu and sophomore Stephen Lumpkins carried the load and tallied eight points each. Lehigh dominated in almost every facet of the game, shot almost 60 percent from the floor and carried a decisive 40-22 lead into the break.
Head Coach Jeff Jones was less than thrilled about his team’s first half performance.
“It was a combination of Lehigh playing really, really good and us being incredibly soft and not competing,” Jones told the Allentown Morning Call. “For all intents and purposes, we already lost the game (after the first half). It was men against boys.”
The Eagles were able to keep it close coming out of halftime. Hendra knocked down a pair of threes and Moldoveanu, Lumpkins and others turned nice passes into points in the paint. The Lehigh advantage hovered in the low teens until the junior from Romania stunned the Mountain Hawks with a huge three pointer. The basket shrunk the lead to seven points with seven minutes remaining.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, their first half deficit was too much to overcome. The Lehigh trio of Dave Buchberger, Marquis Hall and CJ McCollum hit key jumpers and free throws to secure a Mountain Hawk victory down the stretch.
The loss dropped AU to 3-13 on the season and 0-1 in conference play. Next up for AU is a Saturday showdown against Colgate University at Bender Arena, one of two AU games to be televised on CBS College Sports.
You can reach this writer at
sports@theeagleonline.com.
