Lehigh Sports Happenings, Dec 7th-Dec 13th

With exams coming up, this weekend will be featuring the last competition from the Lehigh winter sports teams until the week before Christmas. But there's plenty happening this weekend to whet your appetite for Lehigh sports.

For you FCS football fans, you can catch the FCS semifinals tonight at 8:00PM on ESPN2 (Richmond versus Appalachian State) and tomorrow on ESPN at 4:00PM (Delaware at Southern Illinois). My preview of the weekend football slate you can read here.

Wrestling (4-5)
12/7 No. 5 PENN STATE (Stabler Arena, 7:00PM)

With an encouraging 2-1 record over the last week, the grapplers sure could use a strong showing this weekend against a Nittany Lion squad that should provide a great atmosphere tonight at Stabler in the 96th meeting between these two wrestling rivals. Penn State has dominated us the past four years in duals, and with six nationally-ranked wrestlers for the Lions, it's looking like an awfully daunting challenge for our "David" to slay their "Goliath" in this one. The key match of this dual will be the one involving 184 lb sophomore David Craig (and our only nationally-ranked wrestler) facing off against Penn State's Phillip Bomberger, current ranked No. 19 by Intermat magazine.

Women's Basketball (2-5) (Sagarin: 221, down 5 from last week)
12/8 NJIT (1-6) (Sagarin: 304) (Stabler Arena, 3:30PM)
12/10 OHIO (3-4) (Sagarin: 106) (Stabler Arena, 7:00PM)

Although the trip to Florida pretty much went according to the script, the Lady Hawks returned from Jacksonville beach to give LIU a major scare at home before falling 53-49 in a valiant effort. Freshman G Erica Prosser earned her first start and made the most of it with 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting, while sophomore G Alex Ross added 10 points of her own. The problem is, the dynamic duo accounted for more than half of Lehigh's points on the night - but if a consistent inside scorer can emerge, Lehigh could be a dangerous team down the road.

NJIT looks like a good chance for a Lady Hawks win, while Monday looks to be more brutal competition for the Lady Hawks in Ohio out of the MAC, where guard Lauren John (16.4 ppg, 6 rpg) could be a tough guard for the Lady Hawks to handle.

Men's Basketball (3-4) (Sagarin: 269, down 16 from last week)
12/8 HARVARD (4-5) (Sagarin: 211) (Stabler Arena, 1:00PM)

The Hawks look to go into exam time building off their 67-58 win against NJIT... and more time to forget their 65-55 performance against Central Connecticut State. Head coach Brett Reed switched from a 2-3 to a three guard set, giving sophomore G Dave Buchberger his first career start. Buchberger proceeded to make coach Reed look real good by nabbing 21 points and 5 rebounds. Tellingly, Lehigh finally beat a team on the boards Wednesday - outrebounding NJIT 37-33.

Harvard, skippered by former Michigan and Seton Hall coach Tommie Amaker, will hardly be an easy out. The Crimson have battled to a 3-4 record, with brutal games against Stanford and Providence for starters. Although Harvard did lose to Holy Cross earlier this year, just a week ago they shocked Michigan 62-51. If Lehigh hopes to win this game, they had better improve their Patriot League-worst field-goal percentage defense (.433) against Harvard's extremely balanced attack with four starters averaging double figures.

If Lehigh could go into the "exam break" with a big win here to get back to .500, it would be a great accomplishment for the 'Hawks. It will probably take another great game from budding superstar sophomore G Brant Hall.