In their final home game of the regular season, the AU men’s basketball team fell to Lehigh 80-66 on Wednesday night in Bender Arena.
The Mountain Hawks, which are ranked third in the Patriot League, commanded the first half of the game, causing six AU turnovers in the first eight minutes. At the half, the Eagles trailed by 14, the same margin they went on to lose by.
Freshman guard Jacob Boonyasith finished with 17 points off the bench for the Eagles. Before fouling out, junior guard Sa’eed Nelson added 14 points. Sophomore forward Sam Iorio was held scoreless as all five Mountain Hawk starters finished in double figures. Lehigh’s Kyle Leufroy led all scorers with 18 points.
“I don’t think we came out with the energy we needed to compete with Lehigh,” said head coach Mike Brennan after the game. “They played harder than us.”
With one game remaining in the regular season, Brennan said his team is looking to “bounce back” after what he said was the first time his team did not come out with a good level of energy. Brennan chalked up that lack of energy to “a long season.”
“That happens. We’re asking a lot of these guys, they work hard, and they’re doing a lot,” Brennan said. “We just didn’t have it tonight.”
This was just the third double-digit loss for the Eagles on the season. AU (14-14, 8-9 PL) remains at fourth place in the league standings, tied with Army West Point, who have an overall losing record.
“Despite our losses, we’ve played well in our last six games,” Brennan said.
The Eagles will close out conference play on Saturday, March 2 at Holy Cross and will begin preparing for the Patriot League tournament, which begins on March 5.
