(Originally posted Sat. 4:07 p.m., links added 8:47 a.m.)

EASTON -- "Too big." "Too strong." "Too athletic."

Those were phases Fran O'Hanlon used to describe Lehigh during the press conference that followed the Mountain Hawks' 76-58 win over O'Hanlon's game, but overmatched, Lafayette Leopards.

Looking to extend a modest four-game homecourt win streak that included wins over Navy and Colgate (and a win over Division 3 Dickinson), the Leopards played with a lot of resiliency for the first 30 minutes of so. Twice in the early going, Lehigh went on little spurts that Lafayette managed to squelch before they became flat-out runs with a combination of ball-hawking defense and timely shooting.

The third time Lehigh mounted a charge, Lafayette was unable to answer, though.

It started innocently, with a Bryan White dunk at the 14:02 mark of the second half to put Lehigh back in front after Lafayette had fought off a brief Hawks' flurry at the start of the half. Back-to-back threes to open the half and a twisting runner by Jose Olivero in the first 1:35 of the half has stretched Lehigh's 2-point halftime lead to 38-28 in a hurry.

But Lafayette freshman Andrew Brown hit three quick treys to spark a 13-2 'Pards run that put the home team ahead 41-40.

White's slam gave Lehigh a 42-41edge and a lead it never lost.

The win ended a stretch of three years in a row where Lafayette held serve at home against the Hawks. Wednesday, Lehigh ended a 14-game Hamilton, N.Y. skid.

"There were a couple of streaks we wanted to end," said Olivero.

It took the Mountain Hawks over three minutes to stretch the lead. But after Joe Knight jumped the passing lane on an Andrei Capusan outlet pass with 11:00 on the clock, and went the other way for an easy layup, his first field goal, the Lehigh offense shifted into a gear Lafayette was unable to match.

Lehigh outscored the Leopards 23-7 over the next seven minutes and never looked back.

"They kind of wore us down with their size and athleticism," O'Hanlon said.

The Mountain Hawks shot 72 percent (18-25) in the second half, 66 percent for the game. That was a side of Lehigh seldom seen. The Hawks are better known for low scoring grinds. They were next to last in the league in field goal percentage coming in, shooting 39,4 percent.

"We got some opportunities in transition. We didn't shoot a whole lot of threes. We tried to attack in the paint," Lehigh coach Billy Taylor said

A big chunk of that high percentage against Lafayette can be attributed to big men Mike Fischman and Jason Mgebroff, who were a combined 8-for-8 taking turns in the low post, often with Taylor employing both big guys at the same time in a high-low look.

Lafayette tried to counter by out-quicking the Mountain Hawks at the other end. It worked for a while, before the skinny 6-7 Capusan got worn down from the constant pounding of playing against Lehigh's behemoths. For a while Capusan was able to score almost at will with an effective mix of step away jumpers and quick, nimble post moves that took advantage of his matchup with the bigger, slower of foot, Lehigh defenders.

But at the other end, those same big guys were leaning on him in the post, and eventually it took a toll. The jumpers stopped falling and that enabled the Lehigh defenders to play off him enough to stop Capusan from jetting past them.

"They just kept throwing a lot of people at him," O'Hanlon said.

Jose Olivero led all scorers with 21 points, including 4 three-pointers, two coming back-to-back when Lehigh made the decisive run. Kyle Neptune added 3 treys and 18 points for Lehigh, which hit 9-of-18 from the arc. Knight and Mgebroff each had 10 points off the bench.

Capusan's 16 led Lafayette. Brown chipped in with 15 on 5 three-pointers.

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