The AU men's basketball team fell to the Lehigh Mountain Hawks 77-65 Saturday afternoon, snapping a three-game winning streak and a 20-game home winning streak in Patriot League play.
Vlad Moldoveanu led American with 24 points and six rebounds, while Matt Wilson scored a career-high eight points before fouling out. Senior Zahir Carrington led Lehigh with 20 points and freshman phenom CJ McCollum, who finished with 19 points and 13 boards, was their second best player.
AU was without a key member of its team, Nick Hendra. Hendra has been suspended indefinitely by Head Coach Jeff Jones.
"Lehigh certainly has made a believer out of me," Jones said after the game. "For us to have won, we would've needed to be close to perfect, which unfortunately we weren't. We battled, but we just weren't good enough."
The play in Bender Arena early on was electric. Carington tallied the first bucket of the contest, but AU quickly responded with an aggressive Danny Munoz layup. The lead stretched to five when Moldoveanu finished a three-point-play with 16:40 remaining.
Play was lively for both teams throughout the first half. AU's Riley Grafft went strong to the rim for a dunk and Moldoveanu hit a pair of three-pointers to give AU a 15-9 advantage. A crossover by McCollum and smooth jumper by Marquis Hall pulled Lehigh back into it, tying the game at 17 apiece with 8:36 left.
Both two teams traded baskets until threes by Moldoveanu and Munoz expanded AU's lead to six with only a few minutes remaining in the half. Unfortunately for the Eagles, Lehigh came out of nowhere to score nine consecutive points. A Carrington tip with three seconds left gave the Mountain Hawks a 30-27 advantage going into the locker room.
"The big thing on the negative side of the ledger was at times we played really poor post defense. In the first half, Carrington caught it wherever he wanted," Jones said.
Carrington finished off back-to-back Lehigh possessions with dunks. Another slam by Gabe Knutson brought the Lehigh bench to its feet and gave the Mountain Hawks a five point lead.
McCollum and Hall knocked down big threes for the Mountain Hawks and, despite the best efforts of Moldoveanu and Hill, Lehigh established a double digit lead. The two squads continued trading buckets until the Eagles made a late run behind Hill's shooting. Down by five points with only two minutes remaining in the game, AU was unable to overcome the deficit.
AU was outrebounded for the first time in six games and finished the game with twice as many turnovers as the Mountain Hawks. They also took a season-high 34 three pointers, but shot a measly 26 percent from beyond the arc.
"We're going to miss shots," Jones said. "There will be some games we hit them, some games we miss them. You can't just rely on open shots to win basketball games."
You can reach this writer at sports@theeagleonline.com
