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Sunday, January 21, 2007
Lehigh holds off late 'Pards charge
Lafayette's second half rally falls short in Stabler. (Updated with links at 7:52 a.m.)

Marquis Hall led four Lehigh players in double figures as the Mountain Hawks (9-12 overall, 4-1 Patriot) survived a second-half barrage of Lafayette three-pointers for a 77-69 win to stay tied with Bucknell for second in the league.

Jose Olivero added 16 points for the Hawks. Kyle Neptune had 12 and Bryan White was one rebound shy of a double-double with 13 points and 9 boards. Lehigh's four of a kind was nearly trumped by Lafayette ace Andrew Brown, who poured in a career-high 30 points in a valiant, but losing effort.

Lafayette seemed out of the game at the half, after shooting 6 for 24 (25 percent) from the field to fall behind 37-21 at the break. The Leopards seemed even more out of it when Lehigh's lead swelled to 18 on an Olivero three-pointer with 16:25 to go in the game.

Then the Lafayette threes started to fall -- nine of them in all during the Leopards methodical march back into the game. The ninth of the nine came from Brown and cut the Lehigh lead to just 3 points with 1:39 to play. But the Leopards went cold down the stretch, making just 1 of their final 5 three-point tries while Hall and White combined to go 12 for 12 from the foul line in the final 1:19 to turn back Lafayette's upset bid.

Lehigh, which is at Bucknell Tuesday in a battle for sole possession of second place, won for the eight time in nine home games this season. The win was Lehigh's third in a row over Lafayette, the longest win streak by either of the two archrivals since the 2000-2001 season.
Box score | Morning Call (gamer) | Morning Call (column)

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Published at 7:52 AM by Hoop Time.
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