Skip to main content

Lehigh Weekend: Grapplers and Hoopsters Look To Build More Momentum

For the Lehigh wrestling team, momentum is something everyone knew about with five straight dual wins and a 20-1 overall record. But after last weekend's double hoops defeat to American last weekend, few dared to hope that both the men's and women's basketball teams would be riding a one-game winning streak going into the weekend.

The Lady Hawks, after their 66-48 win over Navy on Wednesday, sport a 7-2 record at sit tied with American at 7-2 atop the Patriot League standings. Leading only by 3 at the break, Lehigh's depth proved to be too much as the Lady Hawks surged to a 30-15 run the rest of the way to put away Navy. Senior G Claire Sullivan contributed 8 assists, while the bench also contributed 12 of Lehigh's 39 rebounds on the game. Junior G Alex Ross (13 points, 4 rebounds) and sophomore G Erica Prosser (15 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals) had their typical great games as well. (Prosser (pictured) was just featured in a nice article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which was reprinted on Lehighsports.com.)

The 18-6 Lady Hawks (Real Time RPI: 86) host 15-9 Army (Real Time RPI: 189) at 7:00 p.m. at Stabler Arena this Saturday. Lehigh will be doing more than defending their 11-game home court win streak, they'll try to avenge their 54-52 defeat at the hands of the Black Knights last month at West Point. Senior G Alex McGuire killed us in New York in that game with 24 of Army's 54 points, and with McGuire celebrating her 100th career start this weekend, she'll be trying to outdo her performance last time.

***

But before the Lady Hawks take the court, there are a pair of wrestling duals at Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall where the Lehigh grapplers will be looking to extend their amazing dual record this Saturday - starting with a dual against Army where Lehigh will be looking to avenge a loss from last year. The Black Knights have a 10-4-1 dual record, and should they win this weekend they would displace Lehigh atop the EIWA rankings - so it should be a good one.

Two matches stand out: at 149, No. 14-ranked senior Trevor Chinn will be taking on No. 10-ranked Matt Kyler (who got a major decision against Lehigh in last year's dual), and the phenom at 197, freshman Joe Kennedy, will be taking on No. 20-ranked Richard Starks. Win one of these matches, and Lehigh will likely prevail; but Lehigh more likely will need big wins at 133 (No. 15-ranked junior Matt Fisk) and at 165 (No 14-ranked junior Mike Galante) in order to come away with the win tomorrow at 1:00 p.m.

Immediately following the Army dual is 4-10 Franklin & Marshall, which would frankly be an upset. Watch for some of our better wrestlers, like No. 17-ranked sophomore 174 lb Alex Caruso, No. 9-ranked junior 184 lb David Craig, and No. 17-ranked sophomore heavyweight Zach Rey to get some big wins en route to a dual victory immediately following the Army dual.

***

This Wednesday, the men's basketball team got its biggest win of the year: a 70-59 win over Navy where the Mountain Hawks held one of the top scorers in the Patriot League, guard Kaleo Kina, to 5 points on the evening. Four Lehigh players scored in double figures, including the three you'd expect: junior G Marquis Hall (18 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists), junior F Zahir Carrington (12 points, 9 rebounds) and sophomore G Rob Keefer (10 points, 4 rebounds). But it was the resurgence of junior G David Buchburger (14 points) that may have been the difference: his defense on Kina, as well as timely scoring, were huge factors in the game.

The 14-9 Mountain Hawks (Real Time RPI: 202) shouldn't be deceived by 7-16 Army (Real Time RPI: 314) at 4:00 p.m. up at West Point this weekend: they've won their last three at home and took Holy Cross to the wire in Worcester this past Wednesday in a 62-59 defeat where the game-tying 3 pointer rimmed out. Senior F Kenny Brewer excelled in that game with 12 points and 9 rebounds, while the Black Knight's leading scorer, junior F Cleveland Richard, had 10 points.

All the excitement will be broadcast on Lehighsports.com.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results.  In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago .  Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth.  Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled.  Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season.  The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W

Made-Up Midseason Grades for Lehigh Football

 We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season.  The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League.  In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play.  Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ .  I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care.  Every face was glum.  They didn't even seem sad.  More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

Fifteen Guys Who Might be Lehigh's Next Football Coach (and Five More)

If you've been following my Twitter account, you might have caught some "possibilities" as Lehigh's next head football coach like Lou Holtz, Brett Favre and Bo Pelini .  The chance that any of those three guys actually are offered and accept the Lehigh head coaching position are somewhere between zero and zero.  (The full list of my Twitter "possibilities" are all on this thread on the Lehigh Sports Forum .) However the actual Lehigh head football coaching search is well underway, with real names and real possibilities. I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons. UPDATE: I have found five more names of possible head coaches that I am adding to this list below. Who are the twenty people?  Here they are, in alphabetical order.