The ‘Cats’ chances were closed out, unlike their three point defense.
Lehigh (2-1, 0-0 Patriot League) couldn’t miss from deep as the Mountain Hawks routed Northwestern (0-2, 0-0 B1G) 85-68 to drop the ‘Cats to 0-2 on the season
Lehigh shot 18-of-33 from three as the Northwestern perimeter defense left Mountain Hawk shooters open behind the arc early and often. It’s an especially worrying loss for the ‘Cats given that Lehigh lost to Michigan by 31 on Friday.
Lily Fandre led all scorers with 26 points on 6-of-9 shooting from three. Also for Lehigh, Ella Stemmer had 18 points on 5-of-7 shooting from three, and Maddie Albrecht had 16 points of her own. Taylor Williams led the Wildcats with 22 points, along with Kyla Jones’s 11 and Casey Harter’s 10.
Taylor Williams won the tip and the ‘Cats opened up the scoring with a layup from Grace Sullivan. After Lehigh’s Ella Stemmer scored the first four, Casey Harter drilled a three pointer to give the ‘Cats the lead back. Grace Sullivan and Kyla Jones followed up with back-to-back baskets, but Lehigh quickly responded with five points of its own. NU led 11-9 at the first timeout.
Melanie Daley came off the bench as the first sub for the Wildcats, but it was Lehigh’s Maddie Albrecht who scored first after the media to tie the game at 11. Stemmer drilled her second three, giving the Mountain Hawks their first lead of the game. Jessie Ozzauto then hit the fourth triple of the game for Lehigh, forcing coach McKeown to call a timeout to slow down what had grown to a 13-0 run.
Out of the timeout, Daley hit a leaning corner pull-up then blocked Ozzauto on the other end a few possessions after. Freshman Xamiya Walton subbed in after, but it was Taylor Williams who beat the shot clock to cut the lead to two. With just 0.6 seconds to go in the first quarter, Walton put up a three and was fouled on the shot. She made two of her three free throws, and the first quarter ended with the score tied at 17.
The second quarter began with Stemmer scoring for the Mountain Hawks. Lily Fandre added another two points for Lehigh, but was quickly answered by back-to-back layups from Sullivan and Jones. The score was tied again, this time at 21. Fandre then hit her second three of the game, followed by two more from Stemmer to give Lehigh a nine point lead. The ‘Cats called a timeout, but Stemmer was already catching fire with 15 points.
Out of the timeout, the Mountain Hawks hit their eighth three of the game, this time from Meghan O’Brien. Jones answered with a layup off an inbound pass, then was fouled on another attempt. She made the second of the two free throws, cutting Lehigh’s lead to nine.
After the two teams traded layups, Fandre made her third and fourth three pointers of the first half. Lehigh went up by 17, but Jones cut the lead down to 15 after quick transition layup off a turnover. With 0.5 seconds to go in the half, Lau picked up her second foul and gave Lehigh two free points. The Mountain Hawks led the Wildcats 47-31 at halftime.
Harter opened up the second half with a three and then a Lau steal resulted in a Jones layup. Fandre answered with her fifth made three of the game on perfect shooting from deep, but she missed her first of the game on her next attempt. Albrecht then made a three of her own. The ‘Cats kept fighting, cutting the score to 11 multiple times, but the Mountain Hawks kept answering. 57-46 with under five minutes in the third quarter.
After a timeout, Fandre made her sixth three to put her over 20 points on the day. The ‘Cats then cut the lead to 10 with a Harter layup. Albrecht went on to make her second three of the day, but Lau answered with a three of her own. It wasn’t enough to stop the Mountain Hawks as they kept finding the open shooter. Lehigh was shooting at just under 70% from three and Northwestern couldn’t figure out how to stop it. At the end of the third, Northwestern was down 71-53.
Surprisingly, Lehigh missed on its first three point attempt of the fourth, but Northwestern couldn’t capitalize because of continuous sloppy play. Another three for guess who, the Mountain Hawks. Timeout Northwestern down 76-55.
Yet again, Lehigh had a wide open three that was nothing but net. Finally, the Mountain Hawks started to miss some of their threes, but they still held a comfortable lead. Despite some late baskets from Daley, the ‘Cats did not get within 15 down the stretch. Lehigh ultimately closed out the win at Welsh-Ryan.
Northwestern next plays at home against Utah on Wednesday, Nov. 14th.